Life is Strange at Leesburg High
by 2shoes
Summary: In the previous story, we followed Kara and Alex through their first semester together in high school, where they made quite a few waves. Now a new student moves in from Arcadia Bay, Oregon, and Max doesn't like the direction things are going. (F/F Kalex Sequel to "Leesburg High has a Guardian Angel")
1. 1 Recap of Previous Story

This first chapter is a super-brief summary of the novel-length story: "Leesburg High has a Guardian Angel"

If you have already read that story, you can skip to chapter two

 **SPOILERS:**

The prior story began a semester ago, when Kara was just starting out as a high school freshman and Alex was a sophomore. The girls were struggling to understand how they felt about each other: did they love each other like sisters, or did their feelings run deeper? Kara never had any doubts. She was in love and knew it early on. Alex struggled with her feelings, as she was haunted by expectations: the expectations of her mother, of her beloved late father, of society and even of herself.

But real love cannot be denied for long, and eventually it conquered her resistance. Neither could their forbidden love remain hidden from the judgemental eyes of fellow students, and they soon felt like lepers as word got out of their "incestuous" relationship.

While they worked though their issues, the "sisters" made two good friends. Both Lena and Eric had been saved by Superman a few years ago from an experimental project run by Lex Luthor under the guise of an orphanage. Those experiments gave the teens special abilities: Eric could impress his feelings on other people, and Lena could read the minds of ordinary people (but not Kara's or Eric's minds).

While Alex struggled to suppress her forbidden desires, Lena and Eric conspired to nurture Kara's sexual nature, trying to free their friends and even the school from what Lena thought of as bullshit sex-phobia. The students had an instinct to slut-shame or body-shame girls; Lena wanted to change that to promoting pride in one's feelings and appearance.

Soon after a **provocative** class project, Kara was changed from outcast to coolness, and she accidentally found herself leading a movement intending to overthrow the school dress code.

During the holiday break, while the group of four friends was welcoming Cookie, a former enemy, into their fold, they had a run-in with Lex Luthor. The evil mastermind had intentions to start a nuclear war, but his plan required using his sister Lena's ability to succeed, so he kidnapped the teens.

Kara needed to play the part of superhero for the first time, but she couldn't allow herself to be seen by anyone. With the help of her friends, she succeeded in rescuing Lena, preventing war and even getting Lex Luthor captured to boot.

However, the teens themselves did not escape capture by the FBI, nor could Kara keep her identity secret from the intelligence agency. The FBI was willing to overlook the super-girl's interference, and they would even monetarily reward the teens for making Lex's capture possible, but only under the condition that Kara and the teens keep quiet about the secrets they had uncovered. Kara in particular, who was drawing a lot of attention to herself, especially in school, needed to cut it out. The FBI and therefore the country demanded that Kara to return to her old invisible self.

So when Kara returned to school at the end of the holiday break, she again became invisible among the very crowd she had inspired to rebel against the school dress code just a week before. Quickly, she was feeling like a leper again and feeling totally miserable. Keeping secrets was not in her nature. Eventually, she was taken aside by one of her admirers, who reminded Kara how important she was to him and to others. Shortly after, Kara returned to school, not only dressed to impress but also sporting her cousin's S on her chest. The symbol was popular for a t-shirt, so she did not give up her identity, but the significance of her defiance was not lost on those seeking to control her. She capped her defiance off by kissing her sister passionately in front of half of the school, re-establishing herself as a hero or a villain, depending on who you asked.


	2. 2 Let's start at the end

August 2009

Alex is leaving Leesburg for good. She's taking a train to National City. She hugs Kara with a tear in her eye, but the excitement outweighs the sadness when she says her goodbyes.

Throughout her Junior and Senior years at Leesburg High, Alex had focused like a laser to reach the top of her class, culminating in a beautiful valedictorian address at her graduation. Now, she's ready to repeat her efforts as a Freshman at National City Medical School.

But this time she will be doing it without her sister and friends around to support her. Eric and Cookie had left together to Rhode Island yesterday for Brown University, and the rest of her friends and sister still had a year left in Leesburg.

Sure, they would all be back together for a day or two on Thanksgiving and during Christmas break, but it wasn't nearly the same. For the past few years, they were undisputed owners of one table in the school cafeteria. They had spent weekends at the mall. They had sung along to Cookie's car radio as they drove to adventure after adventure, but what they remember now most of all were those moments in the car.

That is all over, now. If they were to hold on too tight, they would hold each other back. Instead, they will share the moments of their lives in Facebook posts, Tweets and text messages. They will tell each other about adventures with their new friends.

So Kara, Lena and Maxine accompany Alex to the train station, each dragging some of Alex's luggage on wheels behind them.

This is an ending. The end of an era. The only acceptable ending, Maxine thinks.

But Kara is determined to call Alex every day. She could fly to National City any time she wanted. For her, it is less than a car ride away.

Alex shakes her head at the idea. "Kara, you know we promised to be strong. We need to keep things normal, right? This is what normal looks like. I have to make new friends. This will be good for both of us. Next time we're together, we'll be bragging about our new boyfriends, and maybe you'll have figured out what you want to major at next year, when you go to college, too."

Lena and Max glance at each other, knowingly.

Tears stream down Kara's face, and tremors shake her body. "I'm sorry, I didn't think this would be so hard," she chokes out.

Alex's hugs her sister tightly and sheds a few tears of her own. "Oh, come now," she consoles, "You're acting like I'm just going to forget about you."

That is exactly how Kara is acting.

This is Kara's first real goodbye to a loved one since Krypton, and the trauma of that parting still has its aftershocks four years later. Kara doesn't even have a picture of her real parents to remember them by.

And that thought gives Max an idea.

The train station is crowded with people traveling to National City, and standing right next to them is a father who is also sending his daughter off to college.

Max grabs him and says, "Hey, sir, could you do us a solid and take our picture?" She hands him her ancient Polaroid camera. "I can pay you back with a shot of you and your daughter."

It's a good deal all around. The father is old enough to know how to use a Polaroid.

He admires the old SX-70 then aims the camera at the girls. Kara wipes her eyes, and everyone smiles, wanting to look their best. Kara is way too overdressed for such a hot day. Alex is distracted in one of the photos. Lena is sticking out her tongue in another. Both photos are poorly framed and a bit under exposed. Despite all of that, or maybe because of it, they are both perfect.

"Didn't Polaroid go out of business last year?" the father asks Max, while handing her camera back.

"I spent all of my money on film when I found out," Max replies while staging the reward photo of the man with his daughter like a pro. "Polaroid will never go out of business in my mind."

The train whistle signals the imminent separation of friends, sisters and families.

Nobody talks about Polaroid being an obsolete picture format at this moment. The instant memories feel soothingly permanent, compared to digital photos on Facebook, and the girls argue where the captured moments would be displayed.

"I'll keep this next to my bed in the dorm," Alex promises. She is choked up by how big a deal this picture suddenly seems.

Lena grabs the other photo from Max's hand and promises, "We'll keep this one taped to the dash in my car, so you'll always be with us wherever we go."

Alex nods and looks at Kara tenderly. There is a look in Alex's eyes. It is hard to read. Maybe Alex herself isn't aware of what it means, but Max remembers that look from when she first met Kara and Alex. It was a look so full of love and passion and worry. A look that had meant so much trouble, in another life.

A few hugs later, Alex finally boards the train, and the girls all watch each other through the glass windows until the train pulls aways.

Shortly after, Lena, Kara and Max return to Lena's car and drive the other direction. The sky ahead is overcast, but no storms in sight.

True to her word, Lena taped the Polaroid image to the dashboard of her car.

That constant reminder makes Max nervous. In years to come, through many scares and challenges, that photo will tempt her.

Because whenever Max sees a photo, a whole new world of possibilities opens up before her.


	3. 3 Who the Hell is Max

Back in January 2007

Max only took one pack of film with her on that first day of school in 2007. She swore to herself that the ten exposures would last all day, yet the camera is now empty at lunch break as the Polaroid 600 buzzes and spits out a momentarily blank canvas.

Max watches patiently as an image takes form on the instant film of two girls kissing each other in the middle of the cafeteria! The girls are glowing in the light of Max's flash, with a backdrop of dozens of stunned students filling the shadows. Max is no longer angry at herself for her lack of discipline with her film. Every shot she took today is beautiful, and this last photo is super sweet.

This is the first day after Christmas break, and it is also Max's first day at Leesburg High, after moving in suddenly from Oregon. So far, the day is a whirlwind of discovery and surprises. Nothing has gone according to plan.

She had been given very conservative clothes to wear to school for her first day, so she had assumed that the school required its students to wear uniforms. As soon as that thought crossed her mind, she was plotting an escape.

But Max had it all wrong. She was unprepared for the cosmetic chaos that occurred when she stepped off the bus and onto the school grounds this morning. Many girls are going braless in tank tops or wearing hotpants. Boys are wearing pants so loose it's a wonder they weren't falling to the floor. And t-shirts are everywhere, some of them quite kitschy.

Max, on the other hand, is wearing a long sleeved collared shirt, a knee-length grey skirt with black tights and dress shoes. She had submitted to wearing them, afraid of rocking the boat on her very first day. Just a semester ago, when she had started high school at Blackwell, she was judged harshly for her casual cloths with corny t-shirts that came across as raggedy assed in the conservative private school. So she thought now that she had a second chance to impress this new crowd by dressing sharp. Instead, she could not appear any more conspicuous, like a dead person walking among the living. So much for first impressions.

Max doesn't understand what's going on, or why the school faculty is ceding control to the students, but she knows the explanation revolves around the one girl in Leesburg she was sent to meet.

Her name is Kara Danvers.

When Max first saw Kara in the hall this morning, Max assumed her mission was a mistake, because there was nothing noteworthy about this girl. In fact, Kara was the only person at Leesburg High who was dressed more conservatively than Max was. She had looked sad and awkward, very much like how Max is feeling now, except that this girl was drawing a lot of attention for no reason Max could fathom.

Max couldn't tell if the girl was popular or an outcast. She heard the words "hero" and "traitor" whispered of her in equal measure.

Until right now, in the cafeteria.

Max looks at Kara in the photo, and she compares that to the photo she shot of Kara that morning, and she swears this could be a wholly different girl.

Kara's hair is now puffed up like she had just dried it in a wind tunnel. The hem of her blue miniskirt barely falls an inch below her butt cheeks, exposing untanned skin from the top of her thighs, past her sockless calves, down to her classic Converse sneakers. Her cropped t-shirt bounces above her hips as she moves, exposing her navel. Her boobs are even smaller than Max's, but her nipples declare themselves proudly through the fabric, almost like pins holding up the stylized red S floating between them.

Yes, there is no question this is the girl Max is supposed to meet.

And she's standing in front of half of the school with another girl, arms and lips interlocked, daring someone to stop them!

Some people look away. Some people laugh. Some people actually cheer and whoop. But nobody's ignoring the show. This is not just a two lovers showing off. This means something to these people, to the school.

All Max can do is smile and wish for more film.

While Max stands there, staring like a dork, finally someone notices her.

"There you are!" Lena says excitedly. She grabs Max's arm and drags her into what feels like a spot light. "You wanted to meet her, so here's your chance."

X X X

"Everyone is staring," Alex whispers to Kara between kisses, like it was a warning that at least one of them should heed.

Kara doesn't care that people are looking at her. In fact she likes it, because now it's too late to back down. They can't get cold feet. They can't play it safe anymore. They can't hide behind sisterhood or anything else. Kara never wanted to hide any of it. And the longer everyone watches them, the more "too late" it is to change their minds.

Kara has known for a long time, from even back when she was on Krypton, that she can't be herself even in private. Part of her withers. She is an outgoing person who was forced to be shy. She is more than anyone knows, but she is forced to be less. She hates the lies, but she's told it's for the best. How can it be for her own good when it makes her want to scream or cry?

When she buries her feelings, they sink into a bitter well in her soul and seep like sludge through the cracks of the facade she presents to the world until eventually she breaks down or explodes. So it is such a relief that she can't hide, now. It's too late for worrying, even if that comes later. Maybe one day she will be able to feel proud of who she is and never feel regret.

But Alex is different. She already wants to hide. Even though everyone saw them fully outside of the closet, Alex feels safer inside. Kara can feel Alex growing less comfortable by the moment, so Kara starts to move them towards their table in the cafeteria, where they can join their friends for lunch.

Kara's heart is overflowing. She doesn't think she could be happier.

That's when Lena steps in the way.

"Hey," Lena interjects forcefully, pulling a reluctant mystery girl into the mix. "I want you guys to meet Max, who just came back into my life. She's awesome and super-nice, unless you call her Maxine, then all bets are off."

"Hi Max," Kara says politely, flustered for a moment by the surprise introduction. Then Kara takes Max in, clothes and all, and suddenly Kara feels overwhelmed with sympathy. Max looks so depersonalized in her assigned clothes, like she's trapped in a shell, that Kara couldn't help but remember how she felt just one hour ago. "Oh, look what they've done to you!" Kara cries like she's looking at the greatest injustice in the world. Then she points firmly at Max and says, not quite joking, "Run home right now and wear clothes that you want to wear! That's what I did!"

Max laughs, saying, "That's okay. I can survive a day in these church duds."

Lena whispers in Kara's and Alex's ears. "Don't say another word. I've got top secret secrets, and you won't believe it. But I have to tell you like right now, so let's go where nobody can hear. The gym, maybe?"

"Awww!" Kara bounces up and down, as her hitherto patient stomach suddenly protests. "But I'm SO hungry!"

Without a "please" or "thank you", Lena grabs a bread roll from the plate of some unsuspecting, random guy who had just sat down with a tray full of food, and Lena hands the roll to Kara. "Problem solved." She waves at Eric and Cookie to follow them, and in a few moments, they are all in the gym together.

The double doors slam behind them with a thud, then suddenly it's eerily quiet.

"Okay, what's so top secret?" Alex asks with a mix of impatience and curiosity.

Everyone besides Kara and Alex look knowingly at each other, making it clear the Danvers girls are the last to know Lena's news.

"Max is an old friend," Lena explains, while Eric and Max perform some weird handshake, then laugh. "We know her from that year that Lex held Eric and me captive as his pet guinea pigs. We went through a lot of shit together. Max and Chloe were a little younger than the rest of us, and somehow that meant they didn't get any special abilities from Lex's research. They were tortured for no reason. Then they were gone, and we never got to say goodbye. I never thought I'd ever see Max again. Then, this morning, I felt her in the air, like she was a ghost, and when I looked up, her bus pulled up to the curb, and Max just stepped off and then back into our lives."

Kara and Alex are dumbfounded.

"What happened to her," Alex asks Lena, though Max is right there.

"Adopted," Lena says simply. "Yeah, it's stupid, but on paper, Lex was running an orphanage, and when a few kids didn't show any telepathic aptitude, he cut his losses by selling to the highest bidder."

"Hey," Max objects, "Mary is trying her best to be a good mom."

"Sorry," Lena said. "I'm sure your new mom never knew what was going on. She just wanted a daughter. Lex duped tons of people, but I'm glad it worked out for you."

"So what's the big secret?" Alex asks impatiently. "Why is she here?"

Lena cedes the floor to Max.

"The Super-guy sent me," Max says.

"What?" Kara and Alex exclaim at once.

"I guess Mr. Luthor did some evil shit to you guys and got caught," Max begins to explain. "But before the cops could nab him, he sent some thugs to my home in Oregon to kidnap me again. Superman got there first."

"Why did Lex want to kidnap you?" Alex asks. "I thought you didn't have any powers or anything. He didn't want you before; why did he want you now?"

Max shrugs. "Beats me. Nobody knows. But Superman told Mary, uh, my mom, that I would be safer if I came here, because Kara is some kinda special. He thought maybe we could help each other."

"I don't know." Alex eyes Max suspiciously, then asks Lena, "Do you know if she's telling the truth?"

Lena looks almost offended for Max's sake. "Of course!"

"I haven't talked to Kal in months, but why wouldn't he have told me about this?" Kara mused regretfully. "I guess I wouldn't trust me, either."

"Oh!" Max says, suddenly remembering something. She opened her book bag and pulled out a manila envelope and handed it to Kara. "Superman said that I should give this to you. I have no idea what it is."

Kara eyes Max quizzically.

"The mysteries keep on coming," Alex quips.

Kara unfastens the envelope and pulls out a sheet of paper with writing on both sides. Her eyes open wide when she sees the text on the paper. "It's Kryptonian!" she announces.

"Yeah," Max says. "He said that is how you'd know it was from him."

Kara nods while she looks at the clumsy scrawl, but she does not judge because Kal-El never really knew the language, so it is a valiant effort on his part. Clearly, he had meant for this to be private since Kara is the only person on Earth who can read it, but Kara wants to share this with her friends, so she translates aloud:

 _Dear Kara, as you may have guessed, your little town is rather special to me. When I run into people who are trying to escape trouble, I often send them to Leesburg or nearby, because it's easier for me to watch over people if they are all in one place. After your run in recently with Lex Luthor, I began to doubt the wisdom of that practice. Clearly, the bad guys are closing in on this little sanctuary. I considered breaking up the community, but there are dozens of people and families under my protection, some of them you might know, including your friends. I wanted to protect you most of all, but then I remembered that you were sent to Earth to protect ME. You did very well when helping to apprehend a real criminal mastermind and even avert a nuclear war, so perhaps I have been underestimating you all along. So I propose that you help me protect this town. It's up to you and your family how much you want to be involved. I know you are still very young, and I was hoping you could live a normal childhood like I had, but that was not what your parents had intended when they sent you here. The included letter was found in your spaceship when you landed. I was reluctant to show it to you because I wanted you to have a normal life, but I think now it's time for you to read it and make your own decisions._

Kal-El's letter has more to say, but the mention of another letter has Kara completely distracted.

She hadn't noticed that there was anything else in the envelope. She reaches inside and grabs what feels like a napkin crumpled at the bottom. She pulls it out. It looks semi-transparent with black lines, almost like lace underwear, but Kara recognizes it immediately. It is a Kryptonian writing cloth that quickly turns stiff when exposed to light. The black lines turn into words when it's stretched.

Kara can't keep the tears from her eyes when she recognizes Alura's gorgeous penmanship. Kara swallows. She is scared to read her mother's letter, but everyone is looking at her, captivated, giving her strength.

While Kal-El had written his letter in Kryptonese, he thought like an American, so it was easy to translate. Kara's mom thought like a Kryptonian, so translating is much more difficult. The letter also feels very private. Nobody expects for Kara to read the letter aloud, either, but Kara wants to share this moment with her friends. She expresses her mother's thoughts as best she can while her composure fails her:

 _Kara, my brave daughter, by the time you have found this, your ship will have rendezvoused with Kal-El's ship_ on _a strange world. I lament that we could not prepare you better. With your heart and your new abilities, I know you will overcome. While you have accepted the responsibility of raising your cousin, your destiny is not tied to his. You are not beholden to our wishes. You will not be beholden to the people of Earth. You are now a child of both worlds. There is no correct path in life. You will lose your way many times. What is important is that you find your way back to the brave girl you always were. Earth will no doubt challenge you often. Wherever there are people, they will have insecurities, and though I know your heart always reaches out to people, you may need to protect it. They will try to change you. Be wise. Be strong. But in the end, always be true to yourself._

"Wow!" Lena says what everyone is thinking when Kara finishes translating.

Kara's tears flow freely, and Alex instinctively surrounds Kara with a hug, but Kara is not feeling vulnerable or heartbroken right now. She is feeling stronger and more confident and overwhelmed by the love of her mother. She smiles at Max with a truly beautiful smile and whispers, "Thank you."

Max smiles back, then she looks at her camera and her smile drops a bit. She really wants to take a picture right now.

The quiet, tender moment goes on too long, making Lena a little anxious. She notices the intact roll of bread still in Kara's hand, and she says: "I can't believe it. Kara has actually lost her appetite."

The reminder led immediately to the roll's doom, as Kara swallowed the roll in a single motion, like it was some kind of disappearing magic trick. Kara smiled challengingly, "Any other theories?"

"Okay," Lena concedes. "I'll never underestimate that Kryptonian stomach of yours again. Anyone else up for lunch?"

"Actually, I'm starving," Eric replies. "Maybe that's what Kara is feeling."

Kara points at him sternly yet with a smile. "Oh, I was hungry already, but you aren't doing me any good."

"Okay," Alex says, laughing. "Now, I'm hungry, too. We've still got twenty minutes."

Without saying a word, they all head towards the door leading to the cafeteria.

Everyone except Max, that is. She seems paralyzed in place. Everything is going so well, but she doesn't want to assume anything. She looks to the ground shyly.

All five of her new friends stop and look back at her at once.

"Are you kidding me?" Lena says as if angry. She walks back and grabs Max and drags her while Max laughs. "You might have eluded my brother, but you won't get away from me again."


	4. 4 Alex's Day

Even after eating the bread roll, Kara fills up her lunch tray with everything offered to her. She catches a few curious and jealous eyes, as people wonder how she can stay so thin while eating so much, but nobody is mean. If anyone so much as rolls their eyes, Alex will chase them away before Kara gets a whiff of the insult.

Because no matter how popular Kara gets, Alex realizes how tenuous popularity can be.

Alex marvels at how many new friends Kara has made since Thanksgiving. They are Alex's friends now, too, though Alex knows they are only friends by association. She also knows that most of these are the shallowest of friendships, based only on furor or on an idea she represents. The twelve teens who now squeeze in together at their long table in the cafeteria are the most invested in Kara, yet earlier that morning Alex remembers seeing a few of them expressing feelings of betrayal, all because Kara was not dressed as they would like. So no, Alex is not reassured that they are loyal friends simply because they support her now. Alex isn't even sure who half of these people are.

Alex recognizes Charlotte and Bobby right away, because they inflame a jealous itch in her. Charlotte's boobs just exploded in the past year, so she is gorgeous and insecure and infatuated with Kara. Bobby is even more smitten, and worse, Kara encourages him with heavy doses of affection and teasing. Yet something about him screams harmless, like she's a sex goddess to him, and she is meant to be worshiped and not touched.

Most of the other acquaintances at the table were merely names on a chat room until recently. It's taking Alex some time to attach names to the many faces. She discovers that Cindy is the cute, full-sized girl, who proudly sports a tight dress and a new boyfriend at her side (named Dave). Kim and Emily are both petite, both wear their hair down straight, and Alex keeps forgetting which is which.

All twelve teens squeeze around a table that was only meant for eight – all to get close to Kara, who doesn't seem to realize the honor they're giving her. Kara is just happy to be accepted, but to many of these kids, Kara is the leader of their cause. She might not have any leadership skills apart from bravely being herself, but that might be all that these directionless students need from her.

Back when the more charismatic teens in the school had formed cliques, these kids were the leftovers who were rejected, for various reasons. They had wandered as isolated islands of two or three friends, feeling powerless and voiceless, though they made up almost half of the student body.

Then Lena and Eric came along with their telepathic powers. In either a brilliant act of foresight or a fortunate act of recklessness, they had presented Kara, an alien, to the alienated.

Kara had been the ultimate loser until that moment. She had no pedigree or leadership qualities. She was an awkward, orphan girl who was labeled ugly and incestuous, and she only became popular when she showed off her pussy in class. That one act of immodesty from a reputedly shy girl captured the students' imaginations and had shaken the whole social structure of Leesburg High in the process. Kara had had everything going against her, yet she still had the bravery to be herself and to be nice to people who were cruel to her. So, in a way, maybe it's not so weird to have a leader who lacks credentials or the usual leadership qualities. Now, even the former queen bee Cookie Clifford sits at Kara's table, and as weird as that fact seems, it just proves what a good leader Kara really is.

So, when a new girl who just arrived in Leesburg today, lacking fanfare and friends, sits at Kara's right at the table, this seems perfectly normal, even if she did not get the memo about dressing to express.

Max becomes an immediate hit when she passes the photographs she had shot today around the table, one after another. Alex sees that Max can do magic with a camera. Polaroid film is a very limiting photographic media, but Max has a brilliant sense of what to shoot. Nobody posed for these photos. Max captured ten candid moments that each told a story.

The first two photos preserve the moment when Max was reunited with Lena and Eric. The rest document the dress code rebellion from the front lines. The Polaroid camera witnessed the principal and his assistants standing by the main doors to the school, appearing overwhelmed. Several other photos feature random students proudly dressed in creatively defiant attire. One shows a girl wearing an obscene t-shirt while smoking a cigarette in the school hallways. Another photo shows a boy streaking down the hall in girl's underwear. But of course the best photo, in Alex's biased opinion, is of Kara and Alex herself, taken so recently that it's not even completely developed yet. The photo is beautiful and perhaps too accurate: Alex would rather the photo only capture their love for each other, but it also captures Alex's angst and struggles at that moment. Alex can't pinpoint what gesture or expression gives her feelings away, but she recognizes it as clearly as she recognizes the joyous smile on Kara's face.

As if to prove the point, Cindy peeks over to see the photo in Alex's hand, and she observes, "That is such a good photo! Thanks for being so good to her. She obviously loves you."

"Thank you," Alex replies automatically, as she hands the photo along, but what Cindy said doesn't sound right, and the more Alex thinks about it, the more it bothers her. Cindy's seemingly kind words suggest that Alex is not as in love with Kara as Kara is in love with Alex. Cindy's words suggest that Alex is conflicted about being with her sister, and that maybe Alex could be as fickle towards Kara as anyone else.

Alex looks around the table, and she sees mostly strangers. Is that what they ALL think about her?

And can she really fault people for having that impression? After all, everyone knows by now that Alex had been partially responsible for the "Kara is ugly" campaign, and it must be clear to everyone that Alex has been more than a little uncomfortable with Kara's wardrobe choices. But isn't it also clear that Alex totally supports Kara, now? Or do people think that Alex is being dragged onto the team-Kara wagon reluctantly?

Alex looks for any scowls or suspicious glances or whispers about her, but nobody is paying Alex any mind at all, and she doesn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed.

Alex feels even less special when Kara praises Bobby for helping her get her confidence back, like he's her hero. Alex knows she should feel happy that someone was there for Kara when she needed it, but instead Alex feels sad that that person wasn't herself.

Cindy, Kim and Emily all give Bobby a thumbs up for bringing their favorite version of Kara back. They ask him if Kara's "S" t-shirt was his idea, too (since he was known to wear Superman t-shirts from time to time himself). Bobby shakes his head. He leans forward and whispers to them loud enough for anyone to hear, "No, and I didn't tell her what _**not**_ to wear, either. She came to that idea on her own, and now she's a commando, just like us."

Ever since that day in biology, everyone in Leesburg High knows what "going commando" means, and the girls' eyes open wide in respect. Cindy peeks around Alex to get a better look at Kara, to see exactly how short her skirt is, then she looks back with her hand over her mouth, indicating that yes, it is quite short!

Alex doesn't know what to feel about what they are saying. She wants to support Kara no matter how Kara dresses or how much skin she shows. After back to back messages from Superman and Alura encouraging Kara to find her own way, how can Alex be the bad guy and hold her back? The idea of other people seeing her beloved naked doesn't even bother Alex anymore, and Alex really doesn't care much what the FBI or even what Eliza thinks is best. She's tired of caring about that. But Kara had promised Alex that she would not to do this again. Kara had never broken a promise to Alex before, and that's what really hurts.

Kara doesn't seem to realize what her friends are saying about her, and she doesn't even notice the hurt look on Alex's face. She's too busy getting to know Max, while Lena and Eric recount exciting stories from their pasts.

Finally, the photo of Kara and Alex kissing makes it around the table and it's back in Max's hands, now fully developed. Max looks at it again, as if for the first time, and she angles it so that Kara and Alex can see it, too. "Oh guys, you look hella cute! This is going on my wall!"

Kara bounces excitedly, and she looks to Alex to share the moment.

Alex wants to look excited, too, but her feelings must be written on her face, because Kara suddenly looks worried.

 _Please don't ask me what's wrong_ , Alex wishes so hard it's almost like a prayer.

Kara doesn't ask. Instead, she leans against Alex and puts her head on Alex's shoulder.

Alex leans back, burying her nose in Kara's hair and breathes her in.

That's when they notice that something is wrong with Max.

She's staring at the photo of the kiss in a daze, like she's been hypnotized. Her body is swaying and it looks like she's about to fall, when Lena grabs her.

"Are you alright?" Lena says, trying to force Max to look at her.

Everyone at the table shuts up, suddenly alert that there is a problem.

But as quickly as it started, it ends. Max's far-off gaze returns to the here and now, and she shakes off the cobwebs.

"Are you with us, girl?" Lena asks with unusual uncertainty.

Max somehow nods and shakes her head at the same time. Then just nods. "I'm fine," she says, embarrassed. "I just had this crazy feeling of déjà vu."

Everyone sighs in relief.

Then Cindy's friend Dave says deadpan: "My professional diagnosis is a brain tumor."

Alex can't tell if he means that as a joke, and neither can anyone else, but if so, it fails miserably.

Cindy looks down and apologizes for her boyfriend.

X X X

Those at the table disburse at the end of lunch break. Alex and Cookie both have Geometry next, so they walk together to class.

Both girls are distracted, and it's very uncomfortable.

"That was weird," Alex says, just wanting to make conversation with Cookie.

Cookie nods. "Yeah. And what was Dave thinking?"

"Yeah," Alex agrees. "But truth be told, I was kinda thinking the same thing."

Cookie laughs and smiles, embarrassed. "Me, too."

They walk in silence for a moment, then Cookie suddenly blurts out something that might never come out in normal conversation: "Sometimes I feel like totally inadequate around Eric."

Alex looks at Cookie in surprise. She's impressed that Cookie would feel comfortable enough to admit that to her.

Then Alex realizes why Cookie would admit that fact to Alex, and ONLY to Alex. She realizes that they have something in common that nobody else shares: They are both in love with someone who had very special abilities. Also, they had both played second fiddle to Max throughout lunch. Kara is so excited about meeting the new girl, and Eric is so happy to meet a long, lost friend again, that both Alex and Cookie feel neglected.

"I know how you feel," Alex replies. "But think of it this way: at least Max is more like us than she is like them."

Cookie nods and smiles. "Thanks, that does make me feel better."

"And you know, I actually kind of like her," Alex confesses.

Cookie nods again. "Me, too. Maybe we can all be friends."

"Yeah, we muggles all need to stick together," Alex said.

They both laugh as they walk into a rapidly filling classroom.

Fortunately, there are still several desks that are not taken, so they take two adjacent seats near the back.

A moment after they sit, Peggy from their old clique sits in front of them and immediately turns around to face them.

"OK, what gives?" she asks Cookie directly, ignoring Alex. "You won't talk with us, and you won't answer our texts, and you are even joining their fucking crusade?"

Cookie won't look at Peggy, and she responds with a calm voice. "Like I told you before, they are my friends now, and I know you can't accept that."

Peggy sneers at Alex. "Maybe Alex can come back, but not her slutty little sister."

Then Cookie looks at Peggy in a way that used to terrify Alex in the old days. "Stay the fuck away from Kara!" Cookie demands like a queen talking to a peasant. "And don't ever talk to me again!"

Peggy looks visibly shaken as she stands up and hurries away.

Alex stares at Cookie, beyond impressed.

XXX

Alex's geometry teacher doesn't spend much time talking about math and angles. As in most of her classes today, the teacher spends a good chunk of the period giving her take on the dress code, but she doesn't want to take any sides, so it ends up being a real yawnfest.

Her anthropology class is a different story. The teacher is really excited about the cultural significance of what the kids are doing and how they are shattering barriers. Alex came into Mr. Stevens' classroom feeling ashamed and anxious about breaking rules, but after hearing him expound eloquently for a while, her feelings start to change. She feels like the school is starting a revolution, and she feels like an outsider who is dragged along reluctantly. And she doesn't understand why.

She wants to hear more, but several minutes before the final bell rings to end the class and the school day, the principal calls both Alex and Kara to his office. The call is loud over the school intercom, designed for maximum embarrassment, Alex is sure. The two sisters rendezvous in the hall but don't say a word as they anxiously finish walking the rest of the way towards the principal's office hand-in-hand, worrying about what he has on his mind. But they will never find out, at least not from the principal.

When they turn the final corner, leading to their destination, they nearly walk into Eliza who is standing outside the principal's office. She seems calm and patient, but she won't look at them, especially not at Kara, and especially not at the big "S" on her shirt.

Alex now wishes they really were going into the principal's office.

"Well, it seems like you two have had an interesting day," she says, and even before that, Alex knows this is going to be a long fifteen-minute ride home.

When they get to the car, the girls want to sit together in the back, but Eliza makes Alex sit up front.

Once in the car and on the road, Eliza's voice rises an octave. "So please explain to me … what happened? I thought we had agreed that it was time to give normal a chance. What happened to all of the nice clothes we bought over the weekend?"

Kara, God bless her, actually thinks Eliza is ready for a rational conversation, and she tried to explain herself. "I know, but my friend helped me understand that I'd be happier dressed like this. Then we met this girl, who had messages for me from…"

"Well, the principal told me a different story," Eliza interrupts. "He told me that you caused a scene during lunch, and that they are having trouble enforcing the dress code... because of you."

"But…" Kara starts sadly but then chokes on her next thought.

"Then you even got Alex involved by kissing her in front of everyone," Eliza presses on. She gives Alex an ice-cold glance and asks, "What do you have to say for yourself?"

Alex really wants to say something. She really wants to defend Kara. She wants to tell her mom that she kissed Kara first. But all she can get out is, "I'm sorry, mom, it was a really crazy moment."

Alex hates herself.

"Well, they are taking that 'crazy moment' very seriously. They said that the next time either of you violates the dress code or behaves inappropriately, you will both be suspended."

"But everyone was violating the dress code," Kara complains, feeling unfairly singled out.

"Your sister didn't," Eliza counters, and Alex hates that her mom approves of her right then.

"But…" Kara starts again, this time with tears in her eyes, and Alex only wants to hold her.

Now Alex hates her mom even more than she hates herself, for keeping them apart.

For what it's worth, Eliza is moved by Kara's tears. Her voice softens when she says, "Well, I'm sorry this is so upsetting. We'll talk about this later."

X X X

The girls don't stick around until later. As soon as they get home, they drop off their bags, and when Eliza isn't looking, they hurry out the door and then start walking with no plans or destination. Any place but home.

Alex puts her arm around Kara, and Kara leans into her, but they don't say anything for a while.

Finally, Kara looks at herself sadly and says quietly. "What am I doing? My whole world is gone, and I'm just wasting my life on stupid stuff."

Alex frowns and hugs Kara tighter. She doesn't like when Kara thinks this way, because her mood quickly starts to sink like a whirlpool. Alex has seen the pattern many times. The joy that Kara had felt after reading those letters from Superman and Alura is now turning into fear that Kara is not living up to their dreams for her.

"What you've been doing at school isn't stupid," Alex finally says.

"All I've done is be a harlot," Kara responds.

"Harlot?" Alex repeats, both amused and disgusted. "Do you even know what that word means?"

"No," Kara replies, "but that's what one of the teachers called me. What does it mean?"

Alex paused before answering. "It means you are brave and free."

"It wasn't a compliment," Kara said, knowing at least that much.

"Well, you can't do anything good without upsetting someone. I'm not sure how it happened, but between your personality and Eric's power and Lena's insight, you've become a real symbol at school, and my teacher says it's empowering us all," Alex explains.

"So why is Eliza so mad at me?" Kara asks.

"She doesn't understand what's going on with you or the school," Alex tries to explain. "Changes scare her."

"Changes scare you, too," Kara says directly.

Alex shuts up, because Kara is right. Eliza and Jeremiah were both pretty conservative, and maybe some of that has rubbed off on Alex as well. She thinks of how people were dressing today and how the cliques in school are disintegrating and how friendships are realigning, and it scares Alex where this is all going. It scares her that Kara is in the middle of all of that, with her identity and happiness all tied into what happens.

But Alex also worries that she hasn't stuck up for Kara enough. Sometimes when Kara is at her bravest, Alex feels like a coward. She hates that she instinctively goes along with whatever Eliza and the authorities' ask of her. The adults' arguments make sense logically. Maybe Kara is too impulsive and has an addiction to danger, and sometimes Kara scares Alex to death. But Kara also inspires her. Maybe the adults are wise and know how to keep the girls safe, but it always seems that their solution is to clip Kara's wings, which breaks Alex's heart.

Alex looks sympathetically at her sister, who keeps her gaze down and can't seem to shake the impact of Eliza's judgment.

"Do you remember what Super – I mean, Kal-El, wrote to you," Alex says.

Kara shakes her head, not even trying, then she stares at the ground.

"I remember he complimented you for getting Lex captured and for stopping a war," Alex says, trying to rebuild Kara's confidence. "He also said something about you helping him keep this town safe."

Kara looks at Alex blankly. "So?"

"I'm just saying that my mom might not believe in you, but he does. Your real mom believed in you. And I don't say it enough, but I believe in you, too," Alex says sincerely. "And I love you and everything you are, and I don't want you to change for me or anyone."

Kara shuffles as she considers Alex's words. Then she nuzzles under Alex's shoulder as they walk. The sadness in her eyes gradually transforms into another, warmer feeling. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out the writing cloth with Kryptonese text lovingly inscribed on the threads. She starts reading aloud again what her mother wrote, this time very slowly, pointing out the nuances of Kara's first language.

Then. their moment is interrupted suddenly when Lena texts them: "Come right now to the Super 8 so we can show Max around."

X X X

It makes Alex a little jealous how easily Lena can perk Kara up, but she is happy for the help.

Max follows up with her own text: "And we voted- you have to tell us the 411 on the 911 from that douche principal."

Further texts explain that until Max's mom Mary can pack up and move in from Oregon in a couple of weeks, Max will live at the Super 8 hotel on the border of Leesburg and Midvale. Max says she has just one room with an old low definition TV and no internet connection, so a total wasteland for a 21st-century teen. On the plus side, it's near the mall.

With that thought, plans immediately change to meet at the food court in the mall, instead. "Max needs an emergency wardrobe transplant, stat," Lena explains.

When they turn a corner and see the mall in the distance, the sidewalks are busier, and stores replace houses on either side of the street. It feels like home is now far, far away. Kara's mood really sparks, with Eliza's words becoming a distant memory.

They can barely wait to be reunited with their friends, and before they know it, the automatic doors of the mall open wide, welcoming them to the bright lights and colors of Macy's.

"What do you think of Max?" Kara asks excitedly, as they make their way towards the food court on the other side of the mall. "I think she's awesome, but I didn't like how she called Lena a 'biotch'."

"She didn't mean anything by that," Alex explains, laughing. "They were just teasing, having fun. You know, like how I sometimes call you a dork when we're joking around; you know I don't really mean that, right?"

"Oh," Kara says, surprised but getting it. Then she flashes Alex a mischievous glance and suddenly points at her, smiling brightly. She yells out loud enough for other shoppers to hear, "Ok, Beeeyaaatch!"

Alex feigns offense with a growl, and she smiles while reaching out to grab Kara, loving her change of mood.

Kara runs ahead, hands raised in the air, screaming playfully like little girls in movies do when they are scared.

Alex laughs at Kara's playfulness. Kara's a terrible liar, but she's great at pretending. Although she sometimes seems like a real softy, Alex had never actually seen Kara scream out of fear or surprise, but when she's playing, she could win an Oscar as a scream queen. That's Alex's fault, perhaps, for forcing Kara to watch so many horror movies.

It's a relief after seeing Kara so depressed to now see her as a bundle of energy. Kara could outrun a sports car, but she holds the energy back when she skips and bounces like a child in a candy store, yet almost never seeming to touch the ground.

Alex admires Kara's cute ass while Kara flitters away from her. She noticed how Kara never pats her short skirt down, even in the crowded mall. It flaps around like a flag while she plays, yet somehow, miraculously, never seems to expose the goods.

Kara catches Alex staring at her, thinking unsisterly thoughts.

"Oh, you haven't looked at me like that in a while!" she says.

A while meaning about 24 hours.

Alex blushes. It's true, and she instinctively tries to play her ass-watching off as curiosity rather than a growing flame inside. "I was wondering… what are you wearing under there?"

Kara smiles wickedly. "You mean…"

"Yes," Alex replies suddenly, so embarrassed about the question that she doesn't want to even hear it said aloud. But part of her really wants to know the answer.

Kara pauses for a moment, dramatically, then she suddenly flips her skirt up for just a split second, and Alex is sure that several people can see the whole shebang, if only just an instant. Kara rolls her eyes when Alex still doesn't seem sure, so she lifts up her skirt again, this time holding it there for a full two seconds, letting Alex examine closely.

Kara IS wearing panties. Sexy, orange, tanga panties that Cookie had given her for Christmas, but panties nonetheless.

Alex quickly waves her hands down, like she's lowering an invisible blind on a window. She whispers, "Ok, ok, there are people here!"

Alex feels an odd mix of embarrassment, relief and disappointment upon seeing the simple undergarment.

She looks around, always ready to deal with any of the many problems that Kara often creates. She sees maybe twenty people nearby, but only two old men are paying them any attention, while everyone else minds their own business. That's when Alex remembers that while Kara's clothing and behavior is provocative, a girl flashing her panties to a friend won't cause a big fuss.

Alex laughs at her own overreaction and says, "Sorry. Everyone at school was saying you weren't wearing any."

Kara laughs, too, not at all bothered. "I know. At first, I thought I'd just tell them the truth, but then I thought it would be more fun if I pretended and see how long it took for them to notice. I thought I must have gone too far a few times. I was bouncing around and even picking up pens from the floor left and right. I guess they weren't paying as much attention as I thought."

"Or maybe they only saw what they wanted to see," Alex suggests, laughing. She hesitates, then asks, "But why?"

"Why what?" Kara asks back.

"You obviously like to tease and make people look," Alex observes. "You aren't that shy girl, anymore, so why were you wearing panties at all?"

Kara is surprised. "Because you asked me to… remember?"

Alex nods, then hugs Kara unexpectedly, touched that Kara's promise was that important to her. And feeling very guilty for making Kara feel like she needed to make such a promise. She knows how shameful it was on Krypton to wear clothing like this, yet Kara was always willing to accommodate and to assimilate. All that pressure and judgment must really mess her up inside. Alex hated that she was any part of that oppression. She wanted to make it up to Kara, somehow.

"Besides, making people wonder is more fun than just showing it all," Kara continues halfheartedly, knowing that's how the game is played. "People look longer. I don't know why…"

"Because you've got them entranced. Because they know you like to break the rules, you bad little girl," Alex whispers with a little purr, feeling a little bad herself. She steps towards Kara rather aggressively, looking deeply into her eyes, as if trying to intimidate her.

Kara takes a step back, and she swallows. "Do … do you mind them looking at me?"

"Maybe a little," Alex utters with a shiver, nervously, but not looking like she minds it at all.

In fact, Kara can't make heads nor tails out of the look in Alex's eyes.

"Wh… what do you mean?" Kara stammers, confused. She steps back as Alex pursues until Kara's back bumps against the display window of Hot Topic. "What are you doing?"

Alex presses up against Kara. "I think it's time for a little punishment," she whispers like a devil, as she gives Kara a hard slap on the ass.

Kara jumps in excited surprise, a bit too high for an Earth girl, and then she smiles uncertainly, finally starting to understand.

Alex lunges in for a kiss.

Alex is as scared as she is excited. _What the hell are you doing?_ Screams that good-girl voice in the back of her mind. _This isn't you!_ the voice insists, but Alex shuts that voice up by kissing Kara harder. "Yes, this is me," Alex replies aloud to the invisible good girl, while she kisses adopted sister, then repeats: "This is me."

"What?" Kara asks dumbly, thinking Alex is talking to her.

"Shut up," Alex replies in a whisper, then she forces Kara's mouth shut with a long, searching kiss.

They keep their eyes closed, and the silence of the curious shoppers around them makes ignoring their presence easier.

When the amorous teens come up for air, Kara asks like she's the reasonable one, "But is this OK? What will your mom say?"

That question makes Alex mad. Not at Kara. Not mad at her mother. Mad at herself.

Without allowing herself time to think, Alex slips out of her blouse and tosses it aside, saying, "This is what I think of what mom says."

Kara laughs in giddy shock.

Alex steals Kara's laughter away with another kiss. Then she reaches behind her own back to undo her bra, determined to never again be thought of as the "good" Danvers.

X X X

"Do they do this a lot?" Max asks Lena, as she shoots another photo of the two lovers.

"Not Alex," Lena replies. She wipes her forehead, because she's feeling hot from just watching the girls. "Very interesting."

As soon as the Polaroid spits one out an image, Max slips it into her pocket and then takes another. "I think this photo might get me in trouble."

Lena looks at Eric suspiciously. "Is this your handiwork?"

Eric laughs. "No, I think this time the egg came before the chicken… or something like that."

"Security," Cookie says matter-of-factly while pointing far down the hall at two men approaching.

Lena can't tell if the men are a threat from this distance, or if they are even coming their way, but her friends are making quite a scene, so maybe it's time for an intervention. Lena finally walks up to her impassioned friends and whispers into their ears. "OK, underaged exhibitionists, I think you've stirred the pot quite enough for now."

Alex is startled when she sees that all of their friends are standing beside them. She suddenly reaches for her blouse and pulls it back on.

 _Now that's the Alex I know_ , thought Lena, amused.

"I thought you were in the food court," Alex complains, feeling embarrassed.

Kara only seems amused. And a little flushed.

"Max thought it might be a good idea to come over here," Lena said thoughtfully.

"Maybe she isn't such a muggle after all," Cookie added.

Max looked spookily towards the exit. "Maybe it would be a good idea for us to leave now."


	5. 5 Low Tech

Once past the double doors, the gang steps to the side among some bushes where they can't be seen from inside the mall. They're too curious to just walk away, and why should they slink away nervously when they have the best possible spies in their crew?

They loiter outside with excess energy, like teens are wont to do, so they don't draw much attention from people entering the mall. Eric and Cookie are wrapping around each other, leaving no doubt about their relationship. Alex and Max are kicking the dirt, side-by-side, waiting impatiently, while Kara and Lena engage in surveillance.

Kara appears to be inspecting some details of the white paint on the side of the Macy's, when in fact she's looking through the paint and concrete and observing the fall-out of yet another moment of excessive affection with her sister. Two security guards are interviewing an old couple; they are nodding as they listen to the elderly woman talk. Kara narrates,"She is telling the guards that teenaged girls are such 'dirty birds' these days, and the guys are nodding and saying, 'don't worry ma'am, we'll make sure they are punished.'"

Alex's eyes open wide. "Oh no! Do they have cameras in there? I'll bet they have cameras. Oh, we're so dead."

Lena smiles. "Don't worry about it. They are all laughing. The old woman is not mad, and the guards are asking her more questions because it's a juicy story. Looks like we've got the witnesses we need. You just gave them something fun to tell their friends. If the guards check the cameras, it will only be for fun."

"Really?" Alex asks, now caught between embarrassment for the indecent exposure and excitement for possibly getting away with it.

Lena nods. "Sometimes it's better to know what people are thinking than to hear what they are saying. We could probably start shopping again if we wait a few minutes."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Max says, deep in thought.

Lena looks at her quizzically, wondering what is going on with her.

Since they were reunited this morning, Lena was having more and more trouble reading Max's mind. First, it seemed like Max had a lot on her mind, which was understandable, being that she was starting in a new school in a new town and meeting new people. But as the day went on, Max's mind got more and more cloudy to Lena, reminding Lena of how Cookie used to deliberately try to think of many things at once just to confuse Lena- except with Max, Lena was not sensing any intent to confuse. Usually, given time, Lena got better and better at reading minds; instead, Lena could barely make out Max's thoughts at all, now. It was like tuning an AM radio between two adjacent stations until both voices disappear and are replaced only by static.

"Here we go again," Cookie says, laughing at Max's warning against returning to the mall.

"What's going on?" Alex asks.

"Max is creeping us out," Cookie says with a smile, seeming more amused than creeped out.

"Oh, it's nothing," Max says, feeling embarrassed.

Lena raises her hand to stop Max from resisting. "Nothing? Earlier, back in school, Max stopped a boy from swigging a beer only seconds before the principal came around the corner. About a half hour ago, she reached out to catch a woman in the mall **before** she tripped. Then, while we were eating, she insisted that we come out of the food court, only to catch you two making out. Now, she gets us out here and tells us we shouldn't go back inside. I think I'll follow that advice."

"Guys, it's no big deal," Max says, raising her hands dramatically. "I just get anxious sometimes, you know, like superstitious with random thoughts, and this feeling of déjà vu… Well, if you really want to know, my old shrink was giving me meds to make me feel better, but now my new therapist told me to dump the meds, so I'm trying to do that but it's driving me a little crazy. So now you know, OK?"

The mood is suddenly changed. The laughter is gone.

"Hey," Eric says, putting a hand on Max's shoulder.

She shrugs it off, but not forcefully. It's almost like she wants him to put his hand right back again.

Lena rolls her eyes, embarrassed that things got suddenly serious. "Hey, Max, we're just having fun. I have a therapist, too, though I don't tell her shit. I know she couldn't possibly understand what it's like to be me."

"Me, too," Eric says.

"Our mom says I have PTSD," Kara offers.

"My doctor says I'm a sociopath, but if he tells anyone, I'll kill him," Cookie says with a grin.

"I probably need professional help after what I just did in there," Alex joins in.

"See? We're all a little messed up," Lena concludes with a reassuring smile.

Max shuffles a bit as she takes it all in. "Well, fuck, I was hoping for normal friends."

Everyone laughs.

They loiter a minute longer, saying very little as pedestrians walk by, giving the teens a judgmental stare as they pass.

"I think we should move along before someone tells us we have to," Eric says.

"Don't you still need some new clothes?" Alex asks Max, who was still dressed in the same stuffy clothes she wore to school.

Max points to the small bag she's carrying. "Bought a sweet shirt and spendy sneaks, and I've got a suitcase in the hotel, so I can wing it for a while. We don't have to go back inside."

"So … I guess you guys aren't hungry anymore," Kara says, barely able to keep a whine from her voice.

Lena laughs. "Why, Kara, I think I can actually read your mind!"

Kara blushes. Even with close friends, she's embarrassed by her appetite.

"Isn't there a Subway right next to the Super 8?" Eric suggests.

"Yeah, but it's tiny and it's dinner time," Max replies. "I doubt we could get a table."

Everyone stared at Max for a moment before Lena says, "You really don't want us seeing your room, do you?"

"Well," Max stammers. "It's just this little, cramped hotel room. There's nothing to do there."

"Sure seems like she doesn't want us to see it, alright," Cookie chimes in.

"It's not that," Max insists, then she looks at Eric: "Your home is not far away, right?"

"I've never been in a Super 8," Lena presses, ignoring Max's attempted diversion. "I gotta see what all of the fuss is **not** about."

Everyone laughes, and Max relents, "OK, but you're gonna pull your hair out and run away from the boredom."

They stop by the Subway, first. Kara gets a foot-long, fully loaded with chips and a drink. Everyone else gets something small. Lena and Max are not hungry, after having some chips in the food court, so they decide to share one 6-inch sandwich. The usually discrete Alex makes a joke comparing Subway sandwiches to dicks, because, well, having flashed her boobs is warping her mind.

When they arrive at the hotel room and Max reaches for her key card, Lena says jokingly. "OK, everyone, brace for the boredom!"

When the door opens, what they see is not at all what Lena was expecting.

The room itself looks quite ordinary, and everything is clean, and Max's stuff isn't thrown all over the place. But it looks like something from the 1970s. The TV that came in the room is quite old, but it seems new compared to everything that Max brought along from Oregon.

On a table, next to the TV, is set up an antique portable record player, on which the turntable swings down between two speakers. It is only portable in the way that a suitcase on wheels is portable. It probably weighs half as much as Max herself. It has an extra-long spindle with an arm that moves into place to hold multiple records, allowing a new record to automatically play as soon as the last record finishes.

To the left of the record player is a pile of records, almost all of them from the 60s and 70s.

On the table beside the bed sits a second Polaroid camera, a box full of photos, and a hand-held cassette player with the word "WALKMAN" written on the side.

"Oh my God!" Cookie says. "It's like a time warp or something."

"Does this actually work?" Eric asks about the turntable.

"Yeah," Max says anxiously, and she steps in front of Eric to prove it. She piles 3 records onto the spindle, swings a brace over the records to keep them steady, then flips a switch. The intricate machinery springs into action. A record is roughly dropped onto the platter as soon as it starts spinning. The tone arm jerkily shimmies over and drops the record stylus at the start of the record, causing a slight pop from the speakers. A moment later, the jazzy sound of a saxophone fills the room.

Eric watches the machine closely, fascinated by the old technology, and his admiration makes Max feel satisfied.

But Lena is less impressed. "Ok, Max. Story. Right now. Polaroids. Cassettes. Records. What gives?'

Max is looking dreamily at Lena, while the record plays. "These were my father's things," she says. "My real father's."

Lena and Eric are amazed. "I didn't know you even knew who your father was," Lena says.

"I didn't," Max replies, nodding. "I hadn't seen him since I was like three. He was a serious alcoholic, so mom kidnapped me away, but then she got into drugs, and everything fell apart. I was in foster homes or orphanages ever since, until Lex let me go and the Caulfields adopted me."

Max looked at the record player like she was in a trance and continued: "Then, like three months ago, someone contacted Mary and said that my real dad died and left me everything that he had. And this includes all of his assets. It took them like months to find me, so I couldn't go to the funeral, if there even was one, and he was cremated, so there is no gravestone for me to visit. He left me all of this, too," Max says while opening the refrigerator, showing everyone around 50 packages of film, "but he didn't even leave one photo of himself."

"Sorry, man, that sucks," Eric says sympathetically, and the rest of her friends nod somberly.

Max perks up quickly and laughs. "Hey, I didn't mean to bring everyone down. I mean, I'm still really mad at my dad for not being there and all that shit. But this stuff kind of makes me wonder what he was like."

Max picks up a record jacket with Stevie Wonder on the cover, and she seems wistful. "Besides, there is something about records. They just sound better."

Cookie laughs, then puts her hand over her mouth. "Sorry, no offense, but there is no way THIS record player sounds better than my mp3s."

Max was unperturbed. "I know, it crackles and pops and I think the needle is really old, but somehow it just has a lot more feeling to it."

Lena and Eric look at each other with eyes wide open, realizing something at the same moment.

Max isn't aware of their epiphany. She is transported by the music, distracted only by a photo she picks up from the pile. It was the first photo she had ever taken with one of the Polaroids. It's a black and white image of the lighthouse just off the shore of Arcadia Bay. The photo is overexposed, and the contrast is so extreme it appears like it was taken a hundred years earlier, yet Max swoons when she gazes at it.

Lena helps Max sit on the bed before she falls down.

X X X

As soon as Max mentions how the sound of the record makes her feel, Lena knows what is going on, and it has nothing to do with Max's dad. Lena isn't sure she wants to tell Max the truth and thus take away her faux connection to her late father, but Lena knows she'll have to fess up some day.

Lena's brother Lex is the person who had sent all of that analog equipment to Max, and to ensure that Max would accept it, he said it was all from her long, lost father. Lena has no doubts at all. She knows her brother so well, and she can tell that even Eric is putting the pieces together.

Lena knows about all of the mind research that Lex had been doing. Some of that research involved showing people various forms of media, hoping to trigger some mental awakening. Lex had believed exposure to just the right artistic stimulus would vibrate through his human subject like plucking a guitar string, and their body would amplify that frequency into some kind of telepathic power. He sounded like a mix between a hippy and a mad scientist. But he had never found the vibration he was looking for, so he eventually gave up on Max.

But now, apparently, Lex has figured it out. Whatever triggers the mental awakening in Max is found in analog recordings and photos, but not in something that was converted to digital. These days, everything is converted to digital, so his previous experiments were doomed.

So, he sent all of this old technology to Max to give her a second chance at being a successful experiment. Max says that her new therapist was trying to wean her off of a medication, so Lena suspects the new doctor was on Lex's payroll, and was recording Max's progress, while ensuring that no medication interfered with whatever affect analog media has on Max.

Then Lena remembers why Max is here in Leesburg in the first place: As soon as Lex was captured by police, he had sent someone to kidnap Max. What possible good would kidnapping Max do for him when he is in jail? What kind of ability does the music and photos give to her? Lex seems to have figured it out, but Max doesn't have a clue. The only powers Max believes herself to have are paranoia and déjà vu. Lena can already see that Max can sense events that are about to happen. Lena can also see that Polaroids and vinyl trigger that ability. She just doesn't know the limits of that ability, or if the ability will be a blessing or a curse for her old friend.

X X X

When the song ends on the turntable, Max looks up from the photo and sees everyone looking at her with concern, just like they did in the cafeteria earlier.

"What?" she asks, retreating from the attention.

"Where were you?" Lena asks back.

"What do you mean?"

"You looked like you were a million miles away," Lena replies.

"Oh," Max says. "Sorry."

"We're just glad you are back," Kara says sympathetically.

"What was it like where you were?" Lena asks as though she's not taking this seriously.

Max smiles as though she's not taking it seriously, either. "I know it sounds crazy, but sometimes when I look at these photos, I feel like I'm back where I took them. Sometimes when I hear music, I feel like I'm watching the band play live, you know, like long ago. I hope I'm not getting schizophrenia or something"

"Nah, you're just over-imaginative," Lena lies reassuringly, while she carefully nudges the photos away from Max. When the next song begins to play on the stereo, Lena turns the volume down real low. "I'm not really in the mood for music. I just want to eat and talk, ok?"

"What do you want to talk about?" Kara asks, already reaching for her foot-long sandwich.

"Well, I DID want to talk about what happened in the principal's office," Lena starts, then she looks at Alex. "But what happened in the mall seems much more interesting!"

"We never actually saw the principal," Alex says. "He talked to my mom, and she threw a fit."

Lena nods while staring into Alex's head. "I see, so flashing your boobs in the mall was just your way of getting back at her?"

Alex stands up, suddenly angry. "Stop trying to read my mind! I don't know why I did it, but it wasn't to get back at mom!"

Kara nods. "Yeah, it was really beautiful," she says, like Alex had given her a Disney kiss.

Lena already knows why Alex had put on an R rated display, but she wants for Alex to say it, because she knows Alex needs to say it.

So, Lena says nothing. Nobody talks for several seconds, while they pick up their sandwiches and start eating.

With few places to sit in the room, Kara and Alex sit beside Max on the bed. Cookie and Eric sit on the floor. Lena sits on the chair next to the photos.

"I'll make sure I don't get any crumbs on your bed," Kara reassures Max.

Max shrugs. "Don't worry about it. They're gonna change the sheets in the morning, anyway."

"This is a good sandwich," Eric says between bites.

Cookie nods, her mouth full.

Lena casually shuffles through Max's photos, admiring Max's artistic eye, while she waits.

Lena doesn't have to wait long.

"I just didn't want Kara to feel bad, OK?" Alex finally blurts out, then looks at Kara, who is chewing a mouthful of bread . "It's just that mom is getting so mean, blaming you for corrupting me or some shit like that, and I just want you to know that if anything is wrong with you, it's also wrong with me."

Kara swallows her food and puts her arms around Alex. "It's OK, but I love you even if you do everything your mom wants."

Alex hugs her as hard as she can. "And I'll love you even if you walk around town naked or eat a quart of ice cream at lunch."

Lena grabs the Polaroid camera when nobody is looking and snaps a photo of Kara and Alex hugging. The flash and sound makes everyone jump.

"I hope you don't mind," Lena says to Max. "It was just a sweet moment."

Max smiles. "Anytime."

Kara and Alex don't seem to notice what is going on around them as they hug.

"So, do you think we should go home tonight?" Kara asks, as though considering the question for the first time.

"Mom's gonna be mad," Alex warns, then promises, "but if she yells, I'll yell right back at her."

"You're not going now, are you?" Eric asks.

"Hell, no!" Alex exclaims, and Kara laughs.

"This party's just starting," Lena declares, "so let's turn on this lame-ass TV and watch a movie or something."

"Pay-per-view porn?" Max tempts outrageously.

Alex's mouth drops. "They have that here?"

"Yeah, but they already told me I'm too young to order it," Max replies, laughing.

"You asked?" Lena asks, impressed.

"No, the lady just told me when I signed in, like teenagers always try to watch their porn," Max replies. "Actually, I don't think I can order any movies or bill anything to the room, anyway."

Lena looks disappointed, as though actually wishing for porn. Then she shrugs. "That's OK. I'm sure there is something on regular tv that isn't too lame."

They all cram onto a spot on the bed and do a little channel surfing and finally settle on "How I Met Your Mother." It's a challenge to follow the story, though nobody tries very hard, with all of the joking and playing that goes on on the queen-sized bed. They continue onto "Veronica Mars", before finally deciding it's time for this first day back to school to come to an end.

They all leave Max alone at the Super 8 at around 10:30. Eric drops away from the group first, when they approach his home, then Lena, then Cookie and finally Kara and Alex walk the last five minutes alone.

It's well past 11 PM, when the Danvers girls try to sneak inside, hoping Eliza is asleep, but of course she's been waiting for them in the living room, watching the late news.

Eliza doesn't get up to greet her daughters.

The girls get their clothes ready for school tomorrow. Alex takes out the trash, and Kara cleans up the kitchen which Eliza uncharacteristically left a mess.

Eliza does not move from the couch and does not say a word this whole time.

At first, the girls are grateful for the silence, but now Alex gets worried.

"Mom?" she says from the kitchen, loud enough for her to hear. "We're going to bed."

"Things are going to change, tomorrow," Eliza replies sternly, just a voice in the dark. "Don't think I've forgotten."

Kara and Alex look at each other. Concern turns into determination.

"Goodnight," they say, then quietly go into Kara's room and turn out the light.


	6. 6 Before the Storm

Max is not surprised to hear her cell phone ring barely a minute after her friends leave the motel. Mary called her adopted daughter Max every night since Max had moved into Leesburg.

"How was your first day at school?" Mary asks her daughter.

"It was okay…mom," Max replies, still struggling to think of Mary as her "mom", even after three years. "I felt really out of place as soon as I got on the bus, though."

"Oh no! What happened?" Mary asks, immediately super concerned, which somehow makes Max want to simultaneously hang up the phone and also to curl up in the cocoon of her love.

"It's nothing. I was just so overdressed. I was like the only person who paid attention to the dress code, so I looked totally stupid, but whatever."

"Oh, dear!" Mary replies, alarmed, but then immediately decides to take control of the situation. "I can box up some of your other clothes. It can be there by Thursday."

"No, no, that's OK. I can get a few things with the money you sent me, and Lena and Cookie offered me some of her old clothes," Max reassures.

"Lena? Oh, that's the other sad girl from the orphanage, right? So who's Cookie? Another of Superman's wards?" Mary presses, making Max feel uncomfortable.

"No. Well, kind of, she's that lawyer's kid, and she's Eric's girlfriend. She teases me sometimes, but she's nice. And they are all friends with the super-girl and her sister." Max says casually.

"Oh, you are really making friends fast!" Mary is very excited for her daughter.

"Calm down," Max rebukes gently. "They're nice to everyone. I can already tell they're getting bored with me."

"Nonsense!" Mary rebuked back. "You're a beautiful, smart, fun girl. I'm sure they'll just love you."

"Yeah… Mom… it's getting late. I have to get up early," Max says quietly, though she knows she's not going to sleep for a while. She closes her eyes, feeling exasperated. Mary just doesn't understand what it's like to be her, she thinks.

"Oh, OK, dear," she says, never taking offense even when Max is rude. "Get's some rest. I'll call you tomorrow night. I love you."

"Thanks…mom," Max says, then squirms at how bitchy she sounds. She wants to say "I love you too," but she just hangs up and hates herself instead. Why would anyone tell Max they loved her?

Suddenly, she feels incredibly anxious. She stands up and breathes heavily, almost hyperventilating. Nothing seems to make sense.

Tears start forming in her eyes. "What the fuck?" she says as she wipes the tears away. Why the hell would she feel this way?

Today had actually been pretty great. In fact, she cannot remember the last time she had felt as happy and accepted as she felt today. So why the tears? Why does she feel like total shit, now?

Maybe it's because optimism is such a rare attitude for her, so she doesn't know how to feel it. Optimism makes her feel upset. Then anxious. Then she rebukes herself for believing that people might actually want to be her friend. She wants to throw potential friends and hopes away, because anything good must be a trojan horse. But when she looks this gift horse in the mouth, she finds nothing amiss.

She had had a great time with Lena and Eric, feeling even closer to them than she did years ago, and her new friends were all very nice to her.

But Max had been just as optimistic when she had started high school a semester ago in Arcadia Bay. Everything had seemed great there, too, at first. Then everyone figured out that she was just a creepy, loner orphan. They said she didn't smile enough. They said she was a real spoilsport. She couldn't help it. When she tried to be cool, it was obvious to everyone she was trying too hard. So she just gave up trying.

Then everything went crazy last month, and Max was on edge ever since. That's when she found out that her "real" deadbeat father had actually cared enough about her to write her into his will, for what that was worth, and then she got a new therapist just to deal with that bullshit. All of those things really messed her up, even before the latest discovery that Lex Luthor was trying to kidnap her, forcing her to run away like she was under witness protection.

So now she's stuck alone in a motel, not even a home, and going to a new school, meeting new friends. She's just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Cookie had already jokingly said that Max was creeping her out. How long will it be before they all tell her how creepy she is with complete seriousness?

But Max really wants to be optimistic. She has Lena and Eric back in her life. They have a special bond, after everything they had been through together. Especially Lena. And somehow Max feels connected to Kara, too. She feels like they have a lot in common, despite coming from very different worlds. She feels like they share the same kind of identity crisis and the same heart, even though Max is a modest wiseass, and Kara is a polite exhibitionist. Kara is haunted by memories of her past, and ever since Max learned about her father, Max is haunted memories she wishes she had.

She wants to be haunted, mystified and inspired by her father - a man she had learned to hate and long for, simply for never being there, for never learning about his daughter, or letting her learn about him. Her real parents were a hole in her life that she could never quite fill with anything, until her father died and sent her the Rosetta Stone to decode his soul. He did not send a single picture or write a letter. He sent nothing personal. Just a collection of music that had inspired him, and blank canvases of film for her to express her herself.

Max lays in bed for about four hours, her eyes closed, but her mind very much awake, when she realizes why she feels the constant urge to photograph: She is trying to communicate with her dead father. There is a feeling of magic whenever she watches an image form out of nothing on the film. The whole universe seems to shift for just a moment, and she imagines that is because her father is watching the photo develop, too, in whatever plane of existence he is currently in.

Then Max realizes that while she has shared countless snapshots from her mundane life with the ghost of her deadbeat dad, she had never shared an image of herself. Max had no idea what her father looked like, and likewise, he had never seen his daughter, at least not since she had been in diapers.

Max sits up suddenly in bed, wide awake, energized by the epiphany. Logically, she knows it's insane, but it doesn't feel insane. She can argue with herself that she's losing her mind, but she knows she's not going to get any sleep until she satisfies the demands of that delusion. If there is any truth in it at all, she will let her father see the young woman she is growing up to be.

Max finds the fancy shopping bag from The Gap that contains the t-shirt she had bought during their abbreviated visit to the mall earlier that evening. Her new shirt is grey with a muted blue & green butterfly spread across the chest. Max slips into a pair of faded jeans, classic sneakers and a grey, unzipped hoodie. She poses to her reflection in the bathroom mirror, trying to smile, but her lips never smile right, so she decides to just look casual. She looks like a girl who is trying to hide her femininity and disappear into the crowd, but she really isn't. She just wants to wear clothes that will tell the world and her father who she is. She's a modest girl who would rather watch other people shine and photograph the world around her as if she wasn't a part of it.

Except that now she was photographing herself.

She mounted her SX-70 camera atop a tripod, so the camera is nearly at her eye level. She plans out the background, placing the record player conspicuously to her left, and a few of her favorite record jackets displayed against the wall to her right, as if to show her father which of his records is her favorites. She tries the pose like she had practiced in the bathroom, but it's not feeling right. Then she looks sideways, as though it was a candid shot, but that is silly. Then she just looks near the camera shyly, but not directly at the lens, because that felt like she would be looking into her father's eyes. Finally, she looks at him directly in the eye, with a torrent of emotions battling through her that no practiced pose could possibly express.

Just out of the camera's view, she is holding a remote trigger. She presses the button.

A blinding light explodes in the dim room from an old Sylvania flash bar. Max stumbles forward, temporarily disoriented, as the camera motor whirs and a photo drops to the floor.

Max steadies herself at the foot of the bed, and she picks up the photo. While she watches the image take form, she realizes that she had never taken a photo of herself before. She is nervous about what she will see.

X X X

Kara and Alex wake up at the same time on opposite sides of the bed.

Even in the pitch blackness of the night, Kara can see that Alex's eyes are open. "Did something happen?" she whispers.

"What do you mean?" Alex whispers back. "How long have you been awake?"

"Just now," Kara replies. "I don't know why I'm awake, though."

"Me neither, but now I'm totally up," Alex says while stretching her arms over her head.

She looks at the digital camera on the table beside the bed and curses. It's 4:04 AM, only three hours since they had laid their heads to rest, so now Alex knows she will be yawning all day. She switches on the light beside the clock and sees that Kara is already standing up and looking out the window.

"What's wrong," Alex asks.

"I'm just wondering what woke us up," Kara replies, then stares across the room. "Eliza is still asleep."

"And I hope she stays that way!" Alex says thankfully. "After what she said last night, I don't want to be here when she wakes up."

"Do you think she's really upset?" Kara asks, concerned.

"What do you think? I think she'll totally lose it when you tell her about those letters Max gave you."

"Oh," Kara says thoughtfully. "So… you mean I shouldn't tell her about the letters?"

"I think you'll have to tell her," Alex says, "because if you want to follow the advice on those letters, she'll learn about them one way or another. She's not going to like it AT ALL, but she has to know."

"Oh," Kara responds miserably, as she sits nervously on the bed.

"But she doesn't need to know right now. Don't worry about her," Alex says quickly, angry at herself for upsetting Kara. "Listen to your cousin. He brought you into my family so you could choose between a normal, boring human life, or being someone really special. Now he wants you to understand that it is a choice. It's not up to him or the FBI or anyone else to take that away from you. It's definitely not up to me. Mom wants me to 'guide' you towards being a normal girl, but you'd have to give up all of the amazing things that you are able to do. And you'd have to give up being you."

"But I don't want to give up what I have here, either," Kara objects. "Maybe I should forget everything and be normal like they want, because I don't want to give up my friends, and I don't want to give up you!"

Alex sits beside Kara, and they lean into each other. "You aren't going to get rid of me even if you try!" Alex insists. "We'll just take it slow, OK? You don't need to be a super-girl all at once. One step at a time. We can be brave about little things. Not all heroes wear capes."

"I could never be a hero," Kara says, as though the idea is preposterous. "I'm not brave enough."

"What do you mean?" Alex says with a gentle laugh. "You were brave enough to save all of us from Lex. That took a lot of guts."

"Not really," Kara insisted. "You guys are everything I care about, so I didn't really have a choice."

"Aw!" Alex snuggles against Kara. "But you are still so much braver than me, and everything somehow works out for you. You flashed everyone in your class, and instead of being called a slut, everyone thinks you're a leader in the great dress code rebellion."

Kara laughs. "Oh yeah, real brave! So what about what you did in the mall? That wasn't brave? I did it in front of kids, but you did it with grown-ups around!"

Alex blushes. "Well, you inspired me."

Kara smiles, feeling proud and happy for a moment, but then her smile fades when she remembers that a teacher called her a harlot yesterday just as she was summoned to the principal's office. Kara says, "I don't know if I want everyone to think of me as just the girl who doesn't wear panties."

Alex pauses and says softly, "Yeah, I know what you mean, but people don't think of you that way. I mean, yeah some do, especially the cliques and prudes, but everyone else thinks you're different, like a revolutionary."

"What's that?" Kara asks, confused. "Like a warrior?"

Alex shakes her head. "No, it's something my anthropology teacher said today. My other teachers were mad about what's happening at school and complained that we're all distracted by the crazy clothes, which is total BS. But Mr. Stevens is really cool and got me thinking. He said we are part of a 'great big experiment.' He talked all through the class about clothes and politics. He said dress codes are all about taboos, and that taboos are just immature arguments against doing what we want to do. He even talked about you. I mean kind of. He asked us if there was a difference between a movie star walking around in a sexy $5000 dress with no underwear at the Oscars and a girl doing the same thing in school. Everyone would say that the movie star is 'daring', but the girl in school would be called a slut. Then he said that what is happening in our school is exciting because 'some kids' here are changing the rules, breaking taboos, and are kind of revolutionaries."

Kara looks stunned. "What? Kids like me?" she asks simply.

Alex nods excitedly. "Who else?"

Kara seems unsure. "My math teacher talked a little about the dress code, too. He said that he didn't like it, either, but he said people should dress to be who they want to be, not to impress people or to get attention."

Alex was confused. "So … you're saying you dressed that way to get attention?"

"I don't know," Kara says, looking down.

"Whatever. Your math teacher is a prude. That was just you being you, having fun, and you wanted to share that fun, so what's wrong with getting attention?" Alex reassures while fighting off a little jealousy. "Fuck the taboos! Maybe Lena is right. I know I wasn't always supportive enough, but you showed me that the only rules that really matters are being kind to people and being true to yourself. That's what your real mom wanted you to remember."

Kara frowns. "Yeah, that's kind of what she wrote, but becoming a sex symbol isn't what she had in mind. She wouldn't really care, but that's the point. It's so meaningless, she'd call it wasted feelings. She wouldn't like the dress code, either, but I think she wanted me to do something really important."

"My teacher thinks it's important. But just take it slow. One step at a time." Alex says, putting an arm around her shoulders affectionately.

"What's another small step I could take?" Kara pondered.

"Well, you wore that hope symbol yesterday. That was very brave and so totally you, but most people don't understand what that S means to you. So today wear something they'll really understand." Then Alex whispered playfully.

"I wish it was as easy as dressing for bed," Kara says, as she casually unbuttons Alex's pajama top.

"Or undressing," Alex purrs.

Kara is wearing one of Jeremiah's old white undershirts, which Kara thinks is perfect for a sleeping shirt. It reminds her of casual clothes they wore on Krypton, and is extremely comfortable to sleep in. Most importantly, Alex loves the access it gives to Kara's body.

Kara closes her eyes, when Alex lifts the shirt up Kara's body. She rubs her fingers against Kara's nipple. Kara swoons, as her shirt come off, and she helps Alex out of her pajamas.

They are both naked now, but Kara still has clothes on her mind. "Can I wear something about this?" she asks breathlessly.

Alex pauses in her groping, forgetting what they were just talking about. "What do you mean?"

"So many people in school are mean, calling girls like us 'dykes' or 'sluts' or 'pigs' and I hate it. People should be happy about whoever they love, and they should be happy about their bodies. Like you said, nothing should be taboo. That's who I want to be. The anti-taboo. But how do I tell people that with my clothes?" Kara asks.

"Well, you could carry a rainbow flag," Alex suggests, while unbuttoning her own pajamas. "Or wear the flag on your shirt. We could both wear it. You know, the pride symbol. I don't know if that symbol is supposed to cover adopted sisters who are in love. That's still taboo, but we can be proud, anyway."

"I like that idea!" Kara smiles brightly.

"Finally!" Alex says while pushing Kara back onto the bed. "Now shut up," she demands as she covers her angel's body with her own and the two have some early morning delight.

X X X

It is a wonder that Eliza doesn't wake, given how much noise the girls make in that room. No, not just from the sex, though whenever one of the participants is from Krypton, the whole house is guaranteed to shake. Even after the aftershocks stop, the girls don't go back to sleep. They are awake for good.

Instead, they plan their wardrobes for the day. Yesterday, they started the day as captives to the dress code. Today, they are freedom fighters. While they will display the pride flag on their breasts, to show their support for all kinds of love, they will also flaunt clothes that show who they are, because in this war, their army celebrates the individual.

Kara is already a leader in the revolution, though she feels the appointment is an unearned honor.

Alex is just a rookie for the cause, but she is eager.

Still, Alex wonders how to dress herself.

Kara has it all figured out with clothes. She's not sure what other people like, and she has no sense of fashion, but she knows what she likes.

Alex doesn't quite get it, yet, so Kara tells her to just be herself. Alex struggles with that. She quickly fears that she doesn't know how to express herself with clothes.

Kara sighs and asks Alex the obvious questions. "What's your favorite color?" "Do you like skirts or pants?" "Sneakers or shoes?" "Heavy paint or the natural look?"

Those questions make it easy, and Alex decides on a rule: Dress the opposite of Kara.

Kara finds a cute, blue tennis dress among Alex's clothes that she adores.

Last year, Eliza had caught Alex admiring Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova playing for a championship and thought Alex would want to play tennis, so, on Alex's birthday, Eliza bought her clothes and gear that have been sitting in Alex's closet ever since. It never occurred to Eliza that Alex might have been admiring the girl athletes for a different reason. Besides, Eliza should have known better; the color blue and skirts were always Kara's thing, not Alex's.

Instead, Alex loves herself a satin spaghetti strap black blouse with dressy black pants, which was not very different from what she wore the day before.

Kara prefers old-fashioned sneakers, and Alex puts on some seriously high heels so that she towers over her little sister.

Kara likes the natural look with just a touch of red on her mouth, but Alex loves the mascara, dark shadows and dark lips.

Kara sews the rainbow pride patch over the little alligator on her left breast as a finishing touch.

When Alex models the bright patch in the mirror, she realizes it doesn't look right against her all-black ensemble. But when Kara suggests that Alex could stick the patch onto her purse instead, Alex steels her determination and stitches the patch permanently to the blouse. Pretty or not, she decides that the contrast fits her perfectly.

So now Alex looks at herself in the mirror, and she realizes she doesn't look all that different from how she's been dressing all along. She always wore black, and she always wore dark makeup. But she still doesn't feel like she's really expressing herself. She doesn't feel free.

Now that Alex has summoned the courage to break with normal fashion sense, she decides to break a more official rule: when she slips the blouse over her head again, this time she's not wearing a bra.

"I love it!" Kara says, standing beside Alex by the mirror as they share the same view. Kara almost never wears a bra, but her breasts are small and she wears loose shirts, so it's barely noticeable. When Alex frees her boobs, though, they are clearly visible under the close-fitting blouse. They bounce every time she moves, and under a bright light, her whole nipples are visible, not just the tips.

Alex feels a little nervous about being so exposed, even after her brash show in the mall last night. Then, she was being impulsive; now, she is being decisive.

"This is SO you!" Kara gushes. "You are so sexy, you'll make me jealous!"

Alex smiles wickedly at the idea of giving Kara a taste of her own medicine. She never imagined herself this way before, sexy and shameless.

But then Alex looks at Kara, standing beside her in the mirror, and Kara looks uncharacteristically modest. Sure, her dress shows plenty of skin on the arms, shoulders and legs, but the dress is loose fitting, and the hem falls below Kara's fingertips, longer than any skirt Kara owns. Kara doesn't seem to mind. She looks very pretty, but not like the rebellious leader of a revolution.

"You look beautiful, but you know," Alex starts diplomatically, "I think that dress Cookie gave you shows off your legs more."

"But I've already put the patch on this one," Kara says while looking at the mirror and seeming satisfied.

"I can make another patch," Alex replies. "I've got it down, now. Only take a few minutes."

Kara shrugs. "Nah, that's OK. I kinda want everyone to see my patch and not think about my legs."

Now Alex understands. Kara isn't trying to express herself at all. She's censoring herself to be the girl she thinks Alura would want for her to be, and that has nothing to do with clothes. It has to do with sacrificing what Kara wants to be a better person.

And Alex thinks that Kara is thinking all wrong. Alura wanted Kara to be herself and through that be a light to the Earth. That's what Alex gets from Alura's letter. Her mother didn't want Kara to feel ashamed; she wanted for her daughter to accept herself and feel proud.

The night sky is starting to glow, which means Eliza will wake up soon. Kara and Alex both agree they don't want to wait around for that. They decide to walk to school before Eliza's alarm rings. It's a long but pleasant walk – certainly more pleasant than the wrath their mom promised if they stuck around.

They each take a shower, as they do every morning, only this time an hour earlier than usual.

Alex goes in and out of the shower in five minutes.

Kara takes much longer, not because she needs to clean herself up, but because the sensation and the noise of the shower are soothing to a Kryptonian. Kara claims that the background noise of the shower helps to overwhelm her super-hearing, like static overwhelming a radio station, and if she clears her mind, she can almost feel normal.

As Alex steps out of the shower and Kara steps in, Alex can't help but notice the clothes Kara had folded and placed on the bathroom counter. The blue dress, panties, a bra, stockings and her sneakers.

Alex almost gasps when she sees the stockings, but she holds it in because Eliza was sleeping only a room away. Instead, Alex rubs out her wet hair as she just stares at the offensive clothes.

Ten minutes later, Kara steps out of the shower, and while she towels off, she sees a much smaller pile of clothes than when she had stepped into the tub. All that remains is the dress and sneakers.

Kara stumbles into her bedroom and stares at Alex.

"Where are my clothes?" Kara asks when Alex feigns ignorance.

"Looks like you are wearing them," Alex replies obtusely while zipping up her backpack, preparing for school.

Kara quickly scans the room. Not only are the undergarments she had prepared missing, but replacements have even been removed from the bureau drawers.

Finally, she gets it.

Kara laughs a curt laugh, half annoyed and half mischievous. She could easily do a more thorough search. She is excellent at hide & seek. Instead, she sits on the bed and starts to put on her sneakers. "What about that promise I made?" she asks, as though she doesn't already know.

"Hurry up," Alex says, pointing at the clock, which read 6:55. "Only five minutes before Eliza is up."

"Okay, sis," Kara replies playfully, as she kicks her sneakers aside and snags her own backpack and follows Alex into the hall, walking as quietly as possible, then out the front door.

Alex is startled to see that Kara is barefoot, but realizes that Kara is daring her to say something, now. What does a Kryptonian need footwear for, anyway?

To fit in, of course. To avoid suspicion. But neither girl seems to care much about that anymore.

It is just past dawn and the sun is beaming down the road, so when the girls step on the sidewalk, it's like they are in a spotlight.

Kara twirls around like a ballerina, letting her skirt rise like an umbrella, and when Alex merely smiles silently, Kara finishes with a handstand. "Any regrets?" Kara asks mischievously.

"Nah," Alex says, resisting the urge to look around. "It's 7 AM. Nobody's watching."

Just then, down the road, a car starts pulling out of the driveway, and Kara is still in a handstand.

"OK! OK!" Alex says, suddenly nervous.

Kara flips back onto her feet in a way that might shock an onlooker more than seeing her naked ass, then she stares at Alex with a big shit eating grin on her face.

"You look so proud of yourself!" Alex says, then laughs and kisses her to reassure her that she's not angry.

The car drives by, slowing down as it passes.

Kara looks happy and carefree, skipping on the pavement in her bare feet.

Most of the trek to school is through a bike path, and the ground is much rougher, but even there Kara doesn't miss her sneakers.

Halfway to school the girls encounter a man walking his dog with one hand and sipping coffee with the other. Kara stops to greet the dog, as she always does. It's like they are kindred spirits.

Alex and the dog owner hang back and smile, watching their respective companions fawn over each other.

Kara doesn't just pet dogs. She actually gets on her hands and knees and tries to meet the dog at his level, which is a challenge in this case, because the dog is tiny.

"Chihuahua?" Alex asks the owner.

"Min Pin," he corrects, then takes another sip of coffee.

The little dog hops up and down, trying to lick Kara's face, so she leans way down, and he covers her face with kisses.

Sensing that Kara might never tire of this, the owner tugs lightly on the leash and says, "Come now, Groo. Nice to meet you, young ladies."

Alex waves goodbye, while Kara stands and watches sadly as her new canine friend is dragged away.

Alex feels like she's dragging Kara off in the other direction with an invisible leash. Alex feels that had she or the dog owner not been there, Kara and the dog might scurry off into the woods together.

That's when it occurs to Alex how similar Kara is to a dog. Alex resists the idea because it sounds insulting, but she can't help but make the comparison, as she watches her sister walking barefoot in the woods, wearing only a dress as her leash.

The thought probes Alex's mind, analyzing her memories with a filter. She suddenly realizes how much Kara was like an abandoned pet that was adopted by the Danvers. Everyone loved Kara right off the ship, because she was eager to please, but having a prior life made her difficult to train. She is overly sensitive to criticism, and she can switch quickly from shy when she's on a leash or an exhibitionist when let loose. Or maybe it's not the clothes that are the leash. Maybe it's just all of the expectations. Eliza always demanded that Kara be shy and invisible. Lena pushed Kara to break boundaries. Kal-El is now pushing her to be a hero, and Alura is pushing her to be assertive. Alex, who had been pushier than any of them, now just wants Kara to be herself. However, Alex realizes that who Kara really is is someone who wants to please. So deep down, who is Kara really? What would she do if suddenly freed from all of her leashes? Would she feel lost without a leash?

Alex and Kara watch the man and his dog walk away. The man tries to continue down the usual path, but the dog has other plans. The min pin pulls against the leash and lets the collar choke him, excited by the prospect of following a roughly formed trail through the brush, leading who-knows-where. After a moment of struggling, the man gives in and follows the dog's lead, and maybe that one detour will change the course of their lives. The detour the dog chose.

Alex smiles at the thought and crosses her arms.

"Are you cold?" Kara asks with concern.

Alex shakes her head. "Just a little. It's getting windy."

A gust of wind blasts them, as if on cue, making Alex shiver, and tossing Kara's skirt about like a flag. Of course, she doesn't hold it down, but there are no witnesses to worry about.

Kara looks up. The sky which had been clear when they left home is now cloudy, and the clouds are moving fast. The weather is starting to look awfully volatile for this time of day.

"Do you want me to warm you up?" Kara offers. She means with her eyes, not with her body.

Alex shakes her head. "Let's just hurry up. Walking will keep me warm."

They walk for a bit longer, and the air actually gets cooler, but the wind settles down. Now, the clouds in the sky seem to be churning, as though God is stirring up whipped cream in the sky.

Alex shivers, but this time it has less to do with the cold. She had never seen weather like this before.

As they approach the school, the weather seems completely calm at ground level, while the sky darkens.

The bike path ends at the main road, and once they crest a hill, they are on the edge of Leesburg High's parking lot.

They pause before they approach. Most of the school buses have arrived just minutes ago, but many students are gathering about outside of the school, looking up at the spectacle in the sky. There is even a news van parked behind the busses, which makes no sense. Photographers hurry out of the van with their giant cameras and start pointing their lenses upward.

Their friends are among the throng of curious students, and Lena waves to get the Danvers girls' attention.

Alex responds to the call, saying, "Come on, Kara, let's see what this is all about."


	7. 7 Expectations

**"To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don't be."**  
-Golda Meir

Max looks alarmed as Alex and Kara approach, and she tugs on Lena's arm.

"What's up with the news van?" Alex asks.

Cookie and Lena explain that a news crew showed up to cover the dress code rebellion, which is making some local waves. They came early to talk to students before the school staff could prevent the kids from talking to reporters.

Kara gets excited, thinking that the public is interested in their cause.

"They are more interested in controversy than anything else," Lena explains. "Well, they were, anyway, before the weather got weird. They're saying that the temperature dropped from the 60s down to the 30s in less than 5 minutes."

"Yeah, I could tell," Alex responds with her arms crossed in front of her chest, shivering.

It is way too cold for many of the girls, who are still defying the dress code, but they're toughing it out and staying outside, sensing that something is about to happen.

Max notices that the news cameras are now pointing towards the sky, where dark clouds are forming at an alarming rate.

Just then, it starts to snow. There hadn't been any snow in that part of the country in more than a decade, and even as chilly as it was, it felt too warm for snow.

The weather is so strange for Leesburg, it feels eerie and a little exciting, and everyone is looking to the sky anticipating, as though waiting for fireworks or an eclipse.

Several students run out onto the football field celebrating the special event,

Then the sky darkens, and the snow picks up suddenly until it's as dense as fog, yet melting as soon as it touches the warm ground.

A quick gust of cold air blows in everyone's face followed immediately by a warm gust from behind, and the snow swirls like in one of those snow globes after being shaken up. It's both beautiful and unnerving.

An arc of lightning suddenly reaches out and hits an antenna on top of the school, along with an immediate crack of thunder, causing everyone to run quickly away from the building.

When they look up at the roof of the school and see that no harm was done, they glance at each other and giggle nervously.

While everyone is looking at the school, they don't notice that beyond the blanket of snow, the sky looks like night, and the falling snow is suddenly being sucked into the familiar shape of a tornado, moving quickly towards the school.

Everyone is caught flat-footed. Most students rush towards the school, creating a log jam at the entrance, but those on the football field are like prey caught in an open field by a fierce predator.

A few students scream out against the deeper sound of the coming maelstrom of wind, as a long tentacle of the elemental beast reaches out and grabs one of the students.

Kara doesn't even think. She runs towards the danger and jumps up into the air, flying into the vortex as though she was being sucked in. Her dress is pushed up and if she didn't have one of her arms cocked, it would have been pulled right over her head. Nobody would be able to tell the state of her clothes in this middle of this tornado, and Kara might have a problem to deal with when she lands, but she doesn't have time to worry about that, now, because at least two fellow students are being sucked into the tornado and thrown high up into the air.

Kara is surprised to find out who she is saving. First is Peggy, the new leader of Cookie's old clique, and definitely not a fan of Kara, but she doesn't resist Kara saving her now. Her boyfriend had been holding her hand when the tornado attacked, and he was now being tossed high in the sky, but Kara reaches him in just three seconds and holds him with her other arm. She carries them both to the front of the school where a small crowd of students and the news crew are hovering right by the door, transfixed on the action, since the escape into the building is blocked.

She puts sets both schoolmates down gently on the ground, met by stunned faces all around. Kara has the sense to hold down her skirt after letting them go, afraid of another blast of wind.

But Lena is by the door, pointing at the tornado, which seems to have stalled in the middle of the football field, chewing up stands and fences as though it were a predator ravaging its prey, ignoring the school and the onlookers. "Bobby went after you," Lena yells through the commotion.

Kara turns around instantly and stares into the storm, terrified that Bobby might be dying after valiantly trying to save her. Even with her vision, it's hard to see through all of that commotion. Then she sees Bobby, holding on for dear life to a goal post, which is soon to tear free.

She flies back into the tornado.

Bobby is petrified, barely noticing when she grabs his arm. The goal post is torn from his grip and tossed into the air, but Kara's grip on his arm holds firm. Still, he doesn't seem aware of what has saved him. Kara pulls him closer so she can shout into his ear, "Hold onto me!" He finally looks her way, and when he sees her, he throws his arms around her and clings onto her for dear life.

Then, amazingly, the winds abate, as though the tornado had hit an invisible wall. Kara had been flying against the wind, so she almost crashes into the school from her momentum when the wind dies down. The wind monster breaks up onto three smaller whirlwinds, which quickly disintegrate, leaving behind a sky full of falling debris and a school completely intact and untouched.

She carries Bobby back to the school entrance, where a dozen students remain bravely to watch the spectacle, including Kara's friends. Several other students who fled from the football field, barely escaping from the tentacles of wind, now approach Kara from behind in stunned disbelief of what they saw.

But there are potentially many, many more witnesses than that.

The news crew never took shelter. Their camera, which was zeroed in on the tornado, now follow Kara as she gently comes into a soft landing, and Kara knows they were probably following her as soon as she leaped into action. If they are broadcasting live, then countless others are already watching the super-girl's unveiling.

Kara wonders exactly how much of herself she had unveiled. She remembers several times in the air, the air had pushed her dress up around her chest, but could anyone really see her clearly in that whirlwind, with debris and snow everywhere?

Bobby still clings to her when she lands, as he struggles to catch his breath, which was sucked out by the vacuum in the eye of the beast. He might still be in shock, she thinks, because he's still holding on tight even after they land. Unfortunately, he is also holding her dress up, exposing Kara's bare ass, and Kara doesn't realize it until he finally lets go, and the hem flaps down against her thighs.

By now, the sky is clearing up, and the storm goes as quickly as it came. The storm was unprecedented in these parts, especially since the day's forecast predicted calm weather. But as newsworthy as the insane weather is, this young superheroine is a bigger story and is the center of everyone's attention.

Kara feels everyone's eyes on her. This was exactly what Eliza had always tried to protect her from, and Kara's adrenaline pumps through her body, feeling like she's in danger.

Dozens of people are watching her, most of them too shocked to ask the questions Kara is most afraid of.

Nobody acts aggressively towards her, but the eyes of the students seem more wary than happy to have a hero in their midst. Kara can hear their whispers. Nobody is talking about seeing her naked ass. They aren't even talking about the tornado that came out of freaking nowhere. They are only talking about the odd, skinny girl being much stranger than they ever imagined.

What worries Kara the most was that nobody comes forward to greet her, like she's a dangerous animal that might strike unexpectedly. Like she was no longer one of them. Even Bobby seems eager to get away, as soon as he realizes that he is safe.

Alex pushes her way through the rapidly growing crowd, yelling, "Kara!" Before Kara can answer, Alex is upon her, kissing her with a bit too much affection, then surrounding her in an embrace. "Are you okay?" she asks, seeing the deer-in-the-headlights look in Kara's eyes.

"Yeah," Kara says uncertainly, but Alex's touch calms her considerably.

While the man outside of the news van shoots Kara passively with his beast of a camera, a pretty young reporter argues with a man wearing a headset, and finally, they turn and approach Kara.

The reporter smiles at Kara and says very nicely, "Hello, would you mind talking with me for a moment?"

"Okay," Kara replies nervously, clinging to Alex, who is glaring protectively into the camera.

The man with the headset holds a light and microphone over the reporter's head, and whispers what sounds like nonsense, then says loudly, "OK, recording now."

"Cat Grant WCBS," she announces herself to Kara and to her TV audience. "That was an amazing show of heroics, young lady! What is your name?"

"Kara Danvers," Kara replies obediently.

"Are you a student here?"

"Yes."

"Were those your friends you just saved?"

"Well… Bobby's my friend," Kara answers, then looks for Bobby in the crowd around them. She can't see him.

"Everyone here seems really surprised by what you just did," she observes. "Clearly you are no ordinary young woman. Do you want to explain to everyone how you flew into that tornado, saved your friends and then carried them out?"

"Well," Kara starts, then looks at Alex, who looks back supportively. "I'm from Krypton."

The crowd of students murmurs, and Cat raises her eyebrow. "Funny. I just interviewed someone from there last week," she says. "He came to Earth as a baby when Krypton was destroyed. How long have you been here?"

"Two years," Kara replies.

"Hmm, the math doesn't add up, but okay," Cat says. "Do you have all of the same powers?"

She nods.

"Incredible strength? Laser eyes?"

Kara nods again.

"Is there anything different about being a super-girl?" she asks more playfully, afraid that she's making this cute little alien somehow seem boring.

Kara shrugs.

"Do you have any weaknesses?" Cat asks a little more aggressively. "For example, would you lose your powers if you wore underwear, because clearly, you don't wear any."

"No," Kara says, taking a step back, not sure if Cat is serious or not. "I just don't wear underwear all of the time."

"Well, most of us on Earth do," Cat goads. "Well, except for some of our spoiled starlets when they go out partying. Is that how you see yourself? A sexy starlet?"

"I-I don't think so," Kara stammers. "It's just fun dressing that way. It makes me feel better about myself."

That answer fascinates Cat. "So …. you have all of this power, but you can only have fun and feel good about yourself when you strip off your clothes? I thought you are coming out as a hero right now; doesn't that make you feel good about yourself?"

Kara looked at the ground, feeling intimidated. "I don't know."

"This is so discouraging, I must say," Cat says harshly, "to learn that even a super-powered girl from across the universe feels like she can only derive happiness from her body! Don't you think you owe it to all young women to do better? To be a powerful role model?"

Kara feels like she's being pushed into a corner, which gives her the strength to fight back: "I don't know, maybe I want to be a role model for freedom. Shouldn't girls feel free to dress the way they like?"

"So you're saying you're a lipstick feminist?" Cat replies scornfully. "Or maybe a stiletto feminist? Except without the shoes or makeup, of course. Or maybe that's just me giving you credit for knowledge you don't have."

Cat's ridicule finally forces Alex to speak up. "Why are you being so mean to my sister! She doesn't need to justify herself to you!"

"Sister?" Cat replies with curiosity, and immediately Alex knows she's made a mistake. Cat continues: "Well, this is all very interesting, and I'm sure this has a lot to do with this dress code scandal that is sweeping across your school. But one thing you students need to realize is that this is bigger than high school. Maybe such unruliness can work among your peers, but there are sexual predators in the real world, and in this digital world, what you show each other here, you are showing people out there."

Kara and Alex both feel intimidated by Cat, and when they don't respond the right way, Lena jumps in front and responds in their stead in her usual, direct way: "So you are saying that we have to censor ourselves because some horny men might lust after our young bodies? How is that feminist? Why are we responsible for what they do?"

Cat laughs and looked at the camera. "Well, it looks like we've covered the gamut here today. We came here to do a little story about teens revolting over a dress code in a small suburban high school. Then we are confronted by freak tornados, Kryptonian nudists, kissing sisters and a philosopher defending child pornography. One thing I can say: The teens in Leesburg High are getting quite an education."

X X X

Kara and her friends refuse to talk to any more reporters, and Kara thinks that once the news van left maybe things could return to normal. After all, the sky was clearing up and the school was undamaged. Maybe they could just go to class like nothing had happened?

That is a foolish hope, she quickly realizes, because the students are all looking at her funny, even many of those who had admired her.

The principal, who had lost his air of authority yesterday when the revolution began, now tries to take it back in the confusion. He stands by the school entrance and calls out, "Considering all of this … craziness… I think it's best that we all gather together in the auditorium and talk about what we have all witnessed."

The herd of students give Kara one last look with a range of stares that she can barely read. She can't even read Bobby's usually adoring eyes. The principal calls out once more, and the students dutifully move towards his voice and enter the building.

"I don't want to go in there," Kara says, shuddering. "I think all they are going to do is talk about me."

"You would be right," Lena says matter-of-factly.

"Are they angry at me?" Kara asks, her heart suddenly sinking.

"No," Lena says, her eyes squinting as if looking in the distance. "I sense a lot of confused emotions. Some grateful. Some afraid. A lot of them feel betrayed, feeling like they were getting to know you, only to find you were someone completely different."

"Oh," Kara says, sad but unsurprised. After Eliza and Jeremiah and even Alex warned her for so long about the dangers of telling the truth, she had braced herself for this. But that doesn't stop the tears from flowing.

"Shh," Alex coos, surrounding Kara with her arms. "You still have us."

Kara smiles thankfully and leans into Alex, but she does not feel better, because she was really hoping all of those worries that had been ingrained into her were overblown. After the encouragement from her mom and from Kal-El, she thought that she was finally ready to present herself proudly to this world, and now she just feels foolish.

Lena notices that several students and teachers with cell phones are calling the outside world, and she warns, "More news vans will be pulling up here any moment, as soon as Ms. Grant broadcasts her exclusive."

"I guess it's true, then," Eric added. "No deed goes unpunished."

Alex's expression is grim. "We can't go home. Everyone will be looking for us there."

"I've had to deal with media storms before," Cookie says. "They will find all of your friends' homes and look there, too."

"Oh," Kara whimpered, feeling more like a victim than a hero. "So... where should I go? Just walk in the woods? Do I have to live there?"

"Don't be silly," Alex says encouragingly and holding her possessively, "We'll wander around with you if it comes to that."

"What about my place?" Max offers. "Nobody knows where I'm staying, except my parents, your cousin and you guys."

"Great idea!" Lena says excitedly. "Okay, we'd better get going quickly, before anyone has the wise idea of following us."

When they turn to walk away, Bobby, who was hovering uncertainly nearby, does just that. He runs up to Kara and asks urgently, "Where are you going?"

"We're going… somewhere, just trying to get away," Kara replies. "I thought you were mad at me."

Bobby looks shocked. "You saved my life. I love you. Why would I be mad at you? Can I come along?"

Kara nods enthusiastically and smiles and gives him a quick hug, feeling a little better about telling the truth, now.

Kara can feel Alex's stare burning into her like heat vision.

"What?" Kara whispers.

Alex pauses before replying. "Nothing."

Kara knows better. She turns back to Bobby and says, "Maybe it's not a good idea. I'll see you at school tomorrow."

Then Kara takes Alex's arm, and the six of them walk through the wooded area alongside the road towards the Super 8.

X X X

A half hour later, they arrive at the hotel. Nobody stops them as they walk through the lobby, but they don't relax until Max opens the door to her room and they all slip inside.

The first thing they do is turn on the television, and images of Kara and Alex are inescapably splattered on every channel. They stop channel surfing and settle on WCBS which contains the full interview, with Cat Grant giving her exclusive eye witness report.

Kara stands transfixed in front of the old TV set, biting her fingernails.

The video shows the whole event as it was filmed outside of the school, starting with the tornado, but the video is edited strategically. The narrative focuses on the Danvers sisters' pride patches, then quickly switches to a close-up of them kissing. The video runs extra slow, making the kiss seem long and passionate.

After showing the full interview, the network anchor follows up with Ms. Grant live in the studio, pressing for editorial commentary, which Cat is only too eager to provide.

Anchor: "The news is barely even out, yet everyone is already calling this new hero 'Supergirl', yet you are resisting that title. Why?"

Cat: "With that title should go everything that Superman himself represents. This young lady doesn't even know what she represents. Someone named 'Supergirl' should be a positive role model to our girls and to our society. Instead, she's championing a hedonistic philosophy and living an incestuous, homosexual lifestyle, while convincing herself that she stands for freedom. Our society should not be standing behind such behavior just because of some initial excitement we feel right now. This girl has a lot of maturing to do."

As Cat speaks, the screen shows a slowed-down video of Kara taking flight. The image zooms in and stops at her skirt, clearly showing that she's not wearing panties, but with a black rectangle obscuring her pussy. Then another video shows her landing with her butt-cheeks exposed, except for another black box hiding whatever the producer decided was the naughty part. The banner on the bottom of the screen says "censored", letting viewers know that they will need to use Google to find the other version.

Anchor, shaking his head: "Disgraceful."

Cat: "I'm afraid she's learning this sad behavior from the people she calls friends. She's just a baby when it comes to American culture. She doesn't understand the importance of first impressions, and I'm afraid this is what we are looking forward to in the age of the Millennials. They don't understand that what they do now when they are young will have …"

"This is such bullshit!" Lena yells, as she switches off the TV. She blocks the screen from Kara's view, as though protecting her from whatever ghost image remains. "I know you couldn't tell what she was thinking back at the school, but let me tell you: she was excited when you showed your tush, because she imagined her ratings spiking through the roof. She's such a hypocrite! She attacked you for exposing yourself while saving people's lives, then shows almost everything on TV to boost ratings, and boosts them again by calling you a slut. She's evil, and you are a freaking guardian angel! Don't listen to her."

Kara's phone chirps and she draws her phone from her pocket. It's a message from Eliza, and she reads it out loud: "Don't bother coming home, Kara."

The Danvers girls look at each other, alarmed.

"She hates me," Kara says sadly.

"Maybe she just means that the media is there, so it's not a good time," Alex says hopefully.

Kara shakes her head. "She's not even home, remember? She's at work by now."

Alex forces Kara to look at her. "If she kicks you out, I'm going with you."

"Is there something wrong with me?" Kara asks urgently, as though everyone had been keeping the truth from her. "I wish I had just done what she wanted, and none of this would have happened."

"You tried to do what she wanted. I stopped you. This is all my fault, not yours," Alex says, trying to fall on the sword.

"I should have said something," Max joins the blame game. "I had a bad feeling before all of this happened."

"Okay, time out!" Lena says, giving the sports gesture with her hands. "Time out! No more talking about what we coulda, shoulda done. No more listening to what other people think. We all believe in you guys. You are surrounded by love. Let's just play some really old scratchy records and have a snuggle party and stop thinking about anything outside of this room. The outside world will come to their senses eventually."

X X X

Max picks out a few jazzy albums by Grover Washington Jr and George Benson, while Lena and Eric pull the mattress and comforters and pillows onto the floor.

Cookie, Kara and Alex just look on, confused and amused.

Back in the day, when Max, Lena and Eric were captives in Lex's orphanage, the evil mastermind had imposed many cruel experiments on them, but the snuggle parties were among the bright moments punctuating the torment. Lex had theorized that his orphans' telepathic powers could be strengthened by close, physical contact, so he had all of his orphans cuddle together on cushioned floors. The proximity was intimate, though never face to face. Everyone almost piled onto each other, but people only spooned with their closest friend, those they felt most comfortable touching. Sexual play was discouraged, but expressing love was not. These parties bonded the orphans together so strongly that it didn't matter what Lex did to them; they felt safe with each other.

That's what Lena wants to create here, now, four years later. She wants them all to feel like no matter what is happing outside of that room, it can't touch them when they are together.

Once the floor is prepared, Lena explains the rules, then Eric lays down with an arm wrapped around Cookie. Alex lays next to Cookie and rests her head on Kara's chest. Finally, Lena lays with her back to Kara and beacons Max into her arms.

Max hesitates, then she blushes as Lena's arm wraps around her body. She knows that Lena chose to pair with Max because the others were already coupled up, so it means nothing when Lena presses her body against Max's, like two puzzle pieces. That's what Max tells herself.

Quickly it becomes apparent that this cuddle puddle is not as peaceful as it should be.

"I'm sorry," Eric says suddenly. "I'm finding it hard to relax while holding onto this hottie in my lap."

Cookie giggles. "He's not kidding. It's quite hard!"

Everyone laughs, but the tension does not abate.

"Is this okay?" Lena asks Max, as her hand hesitates over Max's left breast.

Max bites her lip, not sure whose sexual feelings Lena is worried about, Max's or her own.

"I'm okay," Max finally answers unconvincingly, not sure how she feels.

"Maybe we need something else to think about, something happy," Lena says, then suddenly she sits up and grabs a pile of photos from the small table beside the bed frame. The snapshots were all taken since Max arrived from Oregon, and they mostly featured only the people in the current party. She hands several to Cookie and to Kara and then lays down against Max again.

"You are so artistic! These are amazing!" Lena says, holding the first photo in her hand where she and Max can both see.

This is the photo Max had taken of Lena and Eric when they first reunited near the bus at school. Max smiles, because Lena and Eric look so happy to see her in the photo and because Lena's attention tells Max that Lena is still happy to see her. Happy to feel her.

"Oh my God!" Lena says upon seeing the next photo. "Who took this photo?"

"I took it myself," Max says, taking the photo into her own hand. "Last night, after you guys left."

"It's beautiful! Your eyes look so sad, and the colors really stand out!" Lena gushes, as she pulls Max closer.

Max holds her breath, wondering with her mind and heart what Lena is describing as beautiful: Max's photo or Max herself.

Then Max feels Lena warm breath in her hair, making Max melt, but she worries that Eric is messing with Lena's mind. Because why would Lena feel that way about her?

Max stares at the photo, wondering what Lena sees. Max had created the photo as a gift to her late, deadbeat dad, and now imagines that she had created it for Lena. She looks at the white of her own cheeks in the photo where the color was washed out by the camera's flash, while Lena's hand now strokes her face. She looks at the valley between her head and blouse in the photo, while Lena's lips graze her neck. She gets lost in the grainy shadows of her blouse, while Lena's hand explores her body.

Then Max just gets lost. Dizzy. The photo disappears as Max loses her vision, and she feels like she's falling.

When she lands, she falls onto her bed, on top of her mattress, Her blankets are tucked and flattened beneath her, and her pillows are at the head of the bed.

The SX-70 camera is on the tripod. The flash bar on top is still warm. And Max is looking at the photo of herself, and it is still developing.

And Max is alone.

She runs to the hotel door and looks into the empty hallway.

She covers her mouth with her hand and says, "What the fuck?"

Actions


	8. 8 Unintended Consequences

**"Sexuality poorly repressed unsettles some families; well repressed, it unsettles the whole world."**  
-Karl Kraus

Max turns on the 24 hours news channel. No mention of the tornado. No mention of Kara. And most importantly, no mention of an entire day Max remembers every hour of living through.

She sits on her bed as her anxiety grows and grows. Finally, she picks up her phone and dials Lena.

After six rings, Max thinks it's going to voicemail. Instead, Lena answers with a broken, sleepy voice, "Max? What time is this? … Oh, jeez."

"I'm sorry," Max pauses, needing to talk with someone, but she's not quite sure what to say. "I think I'm losing my mind."

"It's OK. What's wrong?" Lena says reassuringly, quickly becoming awake.

"I feel like I've just gone back in time," Max blurts out, not sure how to make it sound rational.

"I know, Max. It feels that way for me, too," Lena responds enthusiastically. "It's like the old times again, but only the good parts!"

"No! That's not what I mean!" Max interrupts. "I mean, yeah, I felt the same way when I saw you again, but what I'm feeling now is completely different. I feel like I've just lived an entire day since then, and now I'm starting the day all over again."

A pause.

"Excuse me?" Lena says finally.

"Did you ever see that flick Groundhog Day? It's like that."

Another pause, then Lena finally says, "Well, that's not really possible."

"Don't you think I know that?" Max shoots back. "But you know how I've had these, like, premonitions? I mean, you even said they were like messages from the future, but they just seemed like hunches to me, gut feelings, girlie intuition, whatever. Like quick daydreams. But now it really does feel like I've lived an entire day, and now that day is starting over. It's really freaking me out!"

Another pause.

"I really shouldn't say anything is impossible, but what you are describing is a lot different from clairvoyance," Lena says. "It was a really intense day; maybe it was just an intense dream. Lex had documented some kids who could catch glimpses of the future in their mind, but nobody has ever actually gone back in time."

"Well, maybe I didn't actually go back in time," Max concedes. "But I remember what happens today. What might happen. I took this photo last night. I mean tonight, but it was a whole day ago for me… Sorry, I fucking sound insane. I lived through an entire day, then I look at this photo I took before that, and suddenly I'm right back here again, looking at the camera that took the photo. I still see freaking ghosts from the flash!"

"Well, what happened during that day that never was?" Lena asks, sounding more curious.

"We went to school, and we hooked up right after the buses arrived. You were wearing a t-shirt that said 'Rebel Alliance' and some majorly torn-up jeans."

"I actually have one of those shirts," Lena mutters thoughtfully.

Max continues. "Then a news van showed up because they're doing this story covering all of the dress code shit, but then the weather went nuts, changing all of that. The sky went dark. It got really windy and cold. It fucking snowed! Then things got really crazy! Lightning hit the school, and, out of nowhere, there was this tornado that came up off the highway and it swallowed up the football field, ripping up the stands and sucking up some of the kids from school. That's when Kara jumped up and saved the kids, and the news crew caught it all on camera. The tornado kind of just fizzled out after that, and it was sunny again about a minute later, like nothing ever happened!"

"That's got to be a dream!" Lena insists. "I've never seen snow around here, and I've never heard of a tornado in these parts. I mean, weather just doesn't act like that!"

Max ignores Lena's assertions and finishes the story: "Well, the news people didn't even care about the tornado when they saw Kara, who had a pretty serious wardrobe malfunction with all of that wind. They were pretty vicious to Kara. The news people didn't seem to care much that she saved some kids or even that she could fly. It's like they'd rather attack someone as a slut than praise them as a hero. Things got hella awkward, so we all skipped school and came back here to my hotel room to freak out, but you decided to have a cuddle puddle to settle everyone down, like the old days. That seems like just a few minutes ago, then I looked at my photo, and suddenly I'm talking to you about shit that hasn't even happened yet!"

"Hmm, I remember those cuddle puddles," Lena reminisces.

Max groans. Lena doesn't seem to be taking this seriously.

"Sorry," Lena says, hearing Max's frustration. "That's one detailed dream, and some of it sounds kind of real. Maybe this was a mix of dreams and premonitions. I mean, I actually have a t-shirt and jeans like that, and I do think those photos trigger something psychic in you. But our minds can play tricks on us, especially when there is some truth in an illusion. Maybe it's a dream, but more than a dream, too. It's like you're seeing into a crystal ball and we just need to figure out what these visions are trying to tell you."

Max feels like Lena is humoring her, but she must admit, Lena's explanation makes a lot of sense. It makes sense to Max's mind, though not to her gut.

At least, she really **wants** to believe Lena is right, because if it is true that she has the power to travel through time, that's scary as hell. That makes her even more of a freak than she already feels like she is. But if it's only a dream, then maybe she'll be OK. A little nuts, perhaps, but nothing a few trips to the shrink couldn't fix. If she keeps telling herself it was a dream, maybe she'll start to believe it.

"I don't know," Max says, her voice shaking. "I know it sounds so crazy, but it feels so real. I mean, I never remember my dreams, not ever, but this is so fucking detailed, like you said. I remember so much, like even what that news lady said, and she said technical stuff that I don't even understand, how could I have dreamed that? Everything felt so real. I hit my shin against the bed frame in 'the dream', and it really hurt. I remember you had your arms around me in the group hug, touching me…" Max stops cold, not believing she was telling Lena that, and immediately tries to back out. "But that was all Eric, doing his shit, because he was playing around with Cookie and got everyone too excited."

"Oh?" Lena says teasingly. "This dream is starting to sound fun! I don't know. Maybe it is real. Just about anything seems possible these days, after Lex messed with our minds and the world found out about super-powered aliens. Maybe it's just a small leap between clairvoyance and actually having souls that bounce around through time. But this sounds **too** crazy to believe without evidence!"

"I know," Max says, feeling foolish.

"Especially that part about Eric getting everyone hot and heavy," Lena added. "You see, I wouldn't need any Jedi mind tricks to get cozy in a cuddle puddle with you."

Max laughs too loudly, thankful, aroused and mortified. Is Lena serious? Does Max even want her to be serious?

The awkward, pregnant moment of silence seems to last forever.

Lena fake yawns. "Well, I think I know what I'm going to dream about now. Let's talk about it tomorrow, okay? I think when we're really awake, we'll really see how silly this is."

"Oh, okay," Max replies, disappointed. She could talk about this until dawn.

"Don't worry about it, Max," Lena says, reassuringly. "We'll figure out what is going on tomorrow. Tell you what. I'll bring an extra pair of shorts for Kara in case the weather gets all funky."

Max laughs, as though she thinks it's a joke. She doesn't.

"Pleasant dreams, baby girl," Lena whispers affectionately.

"You, too," Max replies warmly.

When they hang up, Max feels much better.

Lena was flirting with her, and Max is surprised how much such likes that.

But Max can't accept someone liking her on face value. After a moment of wishful thinking, Max is sure that Lena was just trying to distract her from what seems so real. If so, it works for a moment, but even Lena's affections can't stop Max from remembering the most amazing thing that ever happened to her. She wants to believe it's just a dream, but she can't quite make that leap of doubt.

And Max can't help worrying about what might happen if she does nothing. If she really did experience the future, didn't it make sense to learn from it?

Didn't it make sense to help her friends learn from it, too?

Finally, Max picks up her phone and scrolls through her call history until she finds the number she's looking for.

X X X

Kara and Alex wake up at the same time on the same half of the bed, when one of the phones screams on the table two feet away. The ringtone sounds just like one of those old telephones with an actual bell inside, so it's really loud.

Alex reaches out and grabs the phone before she's even awake, before she even knows whose phone is ringing, because though she's still mostly asleep, she knows that if the phone rings again, Eliza might wake up, and that would be bad.

Alex awkwardly presses the phone against her ear and says, "Hello?" But, to her shock, it starts to ring again, and she drops it.

Then Kara grabs the phone and presses the answer button before the second ring can complete. The girls are facing each other, foreheads pressed together, lips close enough to kiss. Kara holds the phone between them and tries answering again: "Hello?"

"Hi. Kara? It's Max. Are you awake?" the phone asks stupidly.

"Kind of," Kara mumbles.

"Sorry. I'll let you go back to sleep, but I just wanted to say that you should wear panties to school today."

"What?" Kara and Alex both ask at the same time.

"Yeah, probably some pants, too. And a bra," Max says. "That should be enough, I think."

"Why?" Kara asks.

"It's hard to explain," Max says. "It's just one of those premonition things. It might be nothing, but if I'm right, things could get super fucked up if you don't."

"How exactly?" Alex asks, now completely awake. "Everything is already fucked up. I saw a boy streak down the hall yesterday butt-naked, and nobody even seemed that surprised. It's total anarchy at school, and even my English teacher is on board. I know that the principal wants to blame Kara for starting all of this, but, well, screw him! It's happening now no matter what we do."

"No, it's not about school," Max tries to explain. "A lot of people might start calling Kara a slut if she's not careful. It's … hard to explain."

"Well, I don't care what it is," Alex says angrily. "My mom is pretty upset, but she has to get over it, too. I'm so sick of everybody making Kara feel like an outcast."

Alex chokes up, feeling terrible because she was one of those people. Never again.

"I don't care what I have to wear," Kara says contritely, "as long as my friends will still like me."

"Your friends will like you no matter what you wear," Alex reassures.

"Then I'll wear the pants and stuff," Kara promises. "I don't want to do something stupid and mess everything up for everyone."

"Nobody has a right to tell you what to do. It's not fair," Alex insisted.

"I know," Kara says, then pauses in thought. "Remember what Jeremiah said to me when I asked him why I couldn't use my powers?"

Alex fell silent at the mention of her dad. She shook her head. She honestly didn't remember.

"He told me that he would love me even if I used my powers. He said it was my decision, but that I should trust him that everyone would suffer," Kara said. "That sounded like stuff my own parents told me. I trusted your dad, and Max is saying the same thing, so I believe her, too."

Alex swallowed, in awe over the wisdom of her dad. "Okay, as long as this is what you want. You don't have to do it for me, though. I'll love you whatever you do."

"I know," Kara said. "I love you, too."

Max is silent on the phone for a moment, while Alex and Kara kiss and moan and whisper sweetly on the other end.

Finally, Max says, "Uh, okay, so we're all on the same page? Dress like people going to church or like you're going to see your grandma?"

"Yeah," Kara replies sadly, wishing Max didn't say it like that. Kara is willing but hardly eager. Her classmates are so fickle. Kara had won them over so easily when she followed her feelings, and then she lost them just as fast when she towed the line. She knows the same thing will happen again, so listening to Max is a leap of faith.

"Just for school today," Alex adds, making sure Kara knows this isn't permanent.

"Okay, good," Max says, sounding relieved. After a brief pause, Max adds, "Sorry, I know this sounds crazy to call you guys like this. I'll let you go back to sleep."

"Okay, thanks," Kara says, suddenly yawning, as though this wasn't bothering her.

Max says nothing for a moment, then says, "Good night."

Kara turns off the phone and snuggles up against Alex.

"That was weird," Alex whispers. "I can't believe she called just to tell you that. What does she think could happen? Do you want to talk about it?"

Kara shakes her head firmly and turns away from Alex. "I just want to go back to sleep."

Alex reaches around Kara, pulling her in tight, trying to surround her with love, and Kara pulls Alex's arm to her breast and Alex's fingers to her lips, kissing them. It feels intimate for a moment until Alex notices that Kara is sucking Alex's thumb, like an insecure child. Alex is holding her close, but Kara is not entirely with her.

That's when Alex realizes that Kara is bothered more by Max's message than she lets on. Alex has seen Kara withdraw like this many times before. According to Kara's first therapist, it is a symptom of PTSD. It happens whenever Kara feels rejected, which can be triggered by the smallest insult, and it sends her into a funk that is difficult to shake.

Alex refuses to let Kara feel rejected by her, at least. She touches Kara's body like a lover. She whispers how proud she is to be her sister. Finally, when Kara folds into a fetal position, Alex holds her like a mother. It all feels so inappropriate. Nothing with Kara ever seems appropriate, but appropriate has no meaning in love, and Kara needs every kind of love right now.

Alex holds Kara tightly, protectively, as anger flashes through her mind and heart. The anger flashes in all directions, at anyone and anything that would make Kara feel this badly about herself.

She whispers reassurances into Kara's ear until the Kryptonian girl falls back to sleep.

Alex wishes Kara pleasant dreams before she follows her into that peaceful escape.

X X X

Kara's dream is not pleasant, and it totally ruins what was once a thrilling memory.

She is caught in that moment a month ago when she had stripped away dignity and shame in one outrageous act. She replays the moment over and over in her mind, but that strike for freedom is not going nearly as well in this dream as it had in her memory of it.

She's back in that in that biology class, sitting on a high chair, following Lena's direction in that mockery of a science presentation. It starts out the same, with Eric standing at the blackboard. Bobby is sweating eagerly in the front row beside a frowning Andi and a giggling Cindy, just like everything was in the lab a month ago.

But Kara is not feeling excited or liberated or even lustful. She feels scared.

Yet when Lena commands Kara to open her legs, she closes her eyes and obeys, hoping to release the monster and the angel inside of her.

When she opens her eyes again, she realizes it was all a sham. She is still in the lab, but the biology students are gone. Instead, sitting in front of her are Eliza and Alura, who are watching as their daughter presents her sex to them for inspection.

Kara is shocked and struggles to cover up and get away, but her body isn't under her control. She can't change what she did, though the dream is changing everything around her. Like before, Lena is giving her commands, and Kara submits to her control. "Open wider," Lena commands, "and get rid of that skirt."

Kara tears the skirt away like it is tissue paper, leaving her utterly exposed. She wants to escape, but her body aches for more, even as alarm bells go off in her head.

She also hears voices whispering in her ears, haunting her, pushing her one way and another:

Alex whispers, "How can you do this to me?"

Bobby whispers, "You inspire me!"

Alex whispers in her other ear, "Whatever makes you happy!"

Max whispers, "This is dangerous."

Eliza is watching critically from her front row seat, shaking her head. "For heaven's sake, Kara, cover up!"

Kara wants to do just that, but Lena pushes her forward, changing the script further. "Now I want you to do some finger painting."

"No!" every voice whispers in unison into Kara's ears, but Kara is not in control.

Suddenly, Kara is lying down completely naked on a bed in front of the classroom, her legs pivoted open, and she starts rubbing her pussy with her fingertips.

"This is disgusting!" Eliza shouts out angrily. "All you are is an animal in heat!"

Suddenly, Alex climbs on the bed with Kara, whispering in her ear, "Don't listen to her. Make love to me."

Now, Alex is giving the commands. She handcuffs Kara's hands to the bedpost with one hand while stroking Kara's body with the other.

"You are out of control!" Eliza shouts in outrage, looking right past Alex. "You are destroying this family!"

Eliza's words hit Kara like a fist. She looks away from Eliza to her real mother, who is sitting right beside her. Alura is watching her daughter blankly, seemingly unaffected by her daughter's display of sexuality and Eliza's furious rebuke. Kara can read nothing from Alura's eyes.

"Mom, are you there?" Kara asks desperately, while she squirms from the escalating fireworks between her legs. "Do you think I'm bad?"

Alura is unmoved. She continues to watch blankly as Alex and Kara step up their impropriety. The girls roleplay scenes they watched into pornos that they found incredibly hot, but no matter how extreme, no matter how inappropriate, Alura merely watches without judgement or feeling.

"Mom, please," Kara begs. "Am I being bad?"

Alura looks blankly past her and says reassuringly, "Be wise. Be strong. But in the end, always be true to yourself."

Then Kara begins to cry because she realizes that Alura is not really there. Alura's words were meant for another time, another place. Alura's advice means nothing here and now.

Eliza stands up from her seat and points her finger at Kara like a gun. "What is wrong with you? Get up off that bed. You're late. Come to the kitchen right now."

X X X

Kara's eyes pop open, driving sleep away. Alex's body is pressed against hers in bed in a seemingly intimate position, but Alex is still asleep.

"Wake up girls, you'll be late for school," Eliza yells from just beyond the wall.

Alex blinks and looks at Kara with a smile, until awareness sinks in. She glances at the clock beside the bed and says, "Shit."

Only twelve minutes until the school bus arrives.

Alex glares at the door, then rolls her eyes. "I can't believe we slept so late. Now we have to deal with mom. Ugh!"

"No time to shower," Kara says.

"We can do it together," Alex suggests.

Kara hesitates.

"Since when did you get shy," Alex teases as she slips out of her pajamas. "Come on, we'll be in and out in a minute."

It actually takes four minutes, and Alex would rather it take even longer, except that Kara doesn't seem to be in the mood for fun.

But it's not the shower that bothers Kara. It's what comes after.

After toweling off, Alex stands in front of the mirror, doing the best that she can in one minute with her makeup and her damp hair.

Kara's not a big fan of makeup and she can brush her hair on the bus. She's more concerned about what she'll wear.

Kara's top drawer is full of her usual clothes: a series of cute dresses, blouses and mini-skirts, and a single pair of pink panties for when the mood strikes.

Reluctantly, Kara closes that drawer and opens the drawer below. The air trapped inside is filled with that smell of clean clothes that have been sitting around for a long time. These are the rejects. Nothing is physically wrong with the clothes, yet neither girl likes them. Kara isn't even sure where most of them came from, though a few were bought by Eliza during Alex's last birthday. These include grey slacks, a long-sleeved turtleneck blouse, blue socks, big plain white panties, and a heavy sweater meant for a different part of the country. Buried beneath these she finds something she actually likes. A blue tennis dress. It's more modest than what she is used to, but really quite pretty.

Kara takes it out and holds it against her body. She smiles and looks at Alex, who is already fully dressed and is only searching for her shoes.

"That is definitely you," Alex admires, "but didn't Max say to wear pants today?"

Kara frowns.

"Hey, whatever you want to wear is fine with me," Alex assures. "But you are the one who cares what she thinks."

Kara takes a deep breath and puts the dress back in the drawer.

Instead, she pulls out the overly large blouse and the grey slacks. Looking at herself in the mirror, she can barely tell that she's a girl. She feels really depressed.

Alex looks sadly at this fashion nightmare, but she says, "I guess that will do. We've got to go now if we want to catch the bus."

Kara nods and grabs her bookbag. As they head out the bedroom door, Kara feels a tiny glimmer of pride, because she's not wearing any underwear. She could claim that she didn't have time, if pressed, and it really didn't matter, because she was over-dressed, but it was a small act of rebellion she could hold onto. At least Bobby can appreciate that.

They try to hurry through the house and out the door, forgoing breakfast, which would be a big sacrifice for Kara, but Eliza anticipates their attempted escape and blocks the door.

"Oh, no, you aren't getting away that easily," she says sternly.

"But the bus is already coming down the street!" Alex complains.

"I'll drive you to school," Eliza says. "So, sit down and eat your breakfast."

Kara dreads what Eliza has in store for them, but after a few seconds of breathing in the aroma of maple covered buttermilk pancakes, she can barely think of anything else.

"Breakfast slut," Alex whispers in her ear.

Kara giggles as she sits down, forgetting all her fears for a moment as hunger takes over.

Alex is wary, remembering Eliza's warning when they arrived home last night, but Eliza doesn't seem angry at all. She just sits down and watches attentively as Kara devours the mass of carbs on her plate. She ignores the fact that Alex is still standing, still resisting, until Alex finally sighs and sits beside Kara.

Finally, Eliza looks Kara up and down and asks, "Do you really want to wear that to school?"

Kara stops eating and looks down, not wanting to answer.

"Isn't that what you want her to wear?" Alex challenges.

Eliza shakes her head. "Of course not."

"Oh, I see. You want her to dress like every other girl. You want to us to date boys and pretend we aren't in love with each other," Alex accused confidently.

Eliza shook her head. "That's not why I was upset yesterday, and that's not why I keep pushing you. Listen. I know you girls are going through a lot of adjustments right now. But so am I. I wasn't expecting you two to fall in love, and I didn't handle it well when I found out, but I won't tell you who to love. I don't want you to dress like nuns. You are both beautiful girls, and you should be proud of that. What really upsets me is that you insist on drawing attention to yourselves, and not in a good way. I don't think you girls realize how getting a reputation can affect your whole lives. And Kara has a lot to lose if someone discovers who she really is."

The girls gaze at Eliza quietly. They were not expecting for her to be so calm and reasonable, and they are not sure what to think about it.

But then Eliza's voice tightens and her stare is hard. "What I really can't tolerate is the both of you doing things behind my back. I sent Kara to school yesterday in simple, pretty clothes, and she comes back blatantly breaking the dress code, and much worse, she's wearing a Kryptonian symbol on her shirt! Kara, that was the worst thing you could have done. Then both of you snuck out last night before I could even talk to you. I don't demand that you agree with me, but I do need for you to respect me. I am not your enemy. I am only looking out for both of you. You don't always have the follow my advice, but as your mother, I need for you to listen to it."

Kara and Alex look at each other, neither knowing what to say.

Now, Eliza directs her stare at Kara, making the girl shrink in her seat. "Now, I have to insist that this insanity about your clothes has to stop. You don't have to dress like this, but I don't understand your compulsion to expose yourself. Maybe it's because of the way they thought of nudity on Krypton. Maybe it's because Earth girls are wearing less and less each year, and pornography is rampant, and you just don't understand the limits. Maybe it's because you like the attention. I know that many kids at school are caught up in a feeling of freedom when they defy the dress code. But the dress code is there for your benefit. I can't imagine anything more depressing and degrading than having a bunch of kids looking at you like you're a sexual object rather than the wonderful girl you really are. You are making a lot of bad decisions that are going to hurt you most of all in the end."

Quickly, Eliza turns on Alex. "And you've allowed this to happen! Kara at least has an excuse – she's trying to adjust to a whole new world. I think we've brought you up right, and you know how this world works. You and Kara live in the same world, now, go to the same school, and have the same friends. You are the only person who can help her from making these big mistakes. Instead, you two are going down the same path. You can't blame this on your new-found homosexuality, because most lesbians don't behave this way. You can't blame it on your father's passing; you should want to make him proud of you. Maybe you blame it on me, because I'm struggling with being a single parent, but I'm really trying here, and I really need for you girls to try, too."

Kara looks to Alex, not knowing what to say.

Alex hesitates. "You have to accept that we are in love with each other," she demands.

Eliza nodded. "And you have to accept that society is not ready for that. They might never be ready to accept two sisters being in love. They don't know that Kara is from a different world. You will be scrutinized, and that won't be good for Kara. You can explore your feelings at home, but I beg you to tone it down at school."

Alex doubts if Eliza really knows what is best for either of them, but when she looks at Kara, she sees that Kara doesn't want a fight. Alex finally nods, willing to give Eliza another chance.

Eliza smiles, being a good winner. Then she looks at Kara kindly, "Now, you really don't want to wear those clothes, do you?"

Kara shakes her head.

"Put on something nice before I drive you to school. You know staying within the dress code doesn't mean you can't be sexy."

Kara nods. She already knows what to wear.

She has already forgotten what Max told her last night.

X X X

"Damn, your new parents must be rich, letting you take a cab to school, every day!" Lena says as Max waves goodbye at the cabbie and meets Lena curbside.

Max feels embarrassed, never having been accused of being rich before. "I know, it's really spendy, but it's only for a couple of weeks, until my mom can move into town." She looks around, surprised to see Lena there alone. "Where's Eric?"

"Cookie's driving in today, and Eric is tagging along."

"Cookie has a driver's license?" Max asks, more than a little surprised. This conversation didn't happen the first time she lived through this day.

"No, she just got her permit, and her mom is letting her drive in today in her old crappy Toyota. Sad, the Porsche was sweet. Eric decided to go with her."

"That sucks," Max says flatly, then corrects herself. "I mean, it's great for Eric and Cookie, but now you have to take the bus alone."

Lena suggests, "You should take the bus in with me. I can ask the driver to stop by the hotel. It's not far away."

Max is not sure if this is an invitation or a request, so she pushes, "Yeah, or I could just walk to your place and we can wait together. It's not far."

"Yeah, that would be nice," Lena replies, pleased, then they both stand side-by-side and look up at the sky, which is turning dark. A cold breeze causes Lena to shiver. "Well, what do you know, the weather is turning."

Max nods but says nothing else, not wanting to even suggest "I told you so."

Lena's smile fades. "I forgot to bring that extra pair of panties."

Max shrugs. "It's OK. I called Kara last night to warn her."

"You what?" Lena says, overly surprised. "What did you tell her?"

"I just told her I had a premonition, and that she should wear pants today. She seemed fine with it." Max replies.

"Kara with pants, huh? I wonder if she's ever worn them before," Lena says. "I don't know if that was a good idea."

"I'm sorry," Max immediately apologizes. "I just thought I should warn her."

"Did you say anything else? What did she say?" Lena asks, probing.

Max hesitates before saying, "I told Kara that she has to be careful, or people might call her a slut."

"Shit," Lena says flatly, then she closes her eyes in thought. "Sorry, I don't think you know Kara very well. She's pretty delicate. She grew up in a place where there was nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to be proud of. On Earth, everyone blames and praises girls for so many things, sometimes even the same things. Like, we say to always tell the truth, but never be rude. Or always be sexy, but never be a slut. It's confusing to everyone, but especially to Kara. You are lucky because your new mom always supports you, but Kara's foster mom has got serious hang-ups. She tells Kara what she should be ashamed of and tells her that she'll never be happy and nobody will like her until she learns to hate herself. She makes Kara feel like a freak, but I hope she knows that we're all freaks here, with no shame and no pride. I'm afraid what you told her just flips everything around again."

Max looks at the ground. "Well, fuck. I just didn't want for her to get hurt."

Lena sighs. "I know. I don't know what the hell is going to happen. Maybe you did the right thing. I don't know. Or maybe she needs to get hurt to get stronger. I just know that people are really complicated. You're the one who can see into the future, much further than I ever imagined. What do you see?"

"Nothing," Max says, frowning. "Sometimes I just see nothing. I don't think I want this power. All it ever does is make people worry. It's a real bummer."

Lena rolls her eyes and bumps Max affectionately. "No, silly, it's exciting! But we have to be careful. When I first started reading people's minds, I used to show it off all of the time, and everyone hated me. So now I keep my insights to myself, because usually when I blab about it, it just causes trouble. Maybe it's the same way when you tell people their future. Maybe it's dangerous to mess with destiny."

Max nods. "See? It's scary."

"And exciting!" Lena repeated.

A news van approached from the distance, then pulled over on the side of the road, just behind where all the buses were parked.

"Jeez, fucking deja-vu," Max says.

"Yeah," Lena says, clearly impressed.

Immediately, a man jumps out of the van, slides open a door and starts removing equipment.

About the same time, they see a Toyota pull over onto the curb in front of the parking lot. They approach, expecting to see Eric and Cookie, but Kara and Alex emerge instead.

"You should take the umbrella," comes a voice in the front seat. "It looks like rain."

Indeed, the sky is very dark now and the winds are picking up.

When Max sees Kara, she can barely believe it: Kara is wearing the same dress she was wearing in the other timeline. She had ignored Max's advice.

"Looks like Kara didn't believe you," Lena says, more amused than worried.

But Max notices that while Kara's clothes did not change, her attitude looks completely different. She stares towards the ground in deference. She crosses her arms in front of her chest. She appears very uncertain. While Alex removes the umbrella from the trunk, the clouds swirl overhead and descend upon the school, unleashing snow instead of rain.

"This doesn't feel right," Lena says, though everything Max had predicted is coming to pass.

Max nods in agreement. While the weather changes are just like she remembers, the little things just aren't right. The van arrived later than before. Cookie, Eric and Lena had all arrived on the bus together the first time through this morning, so they should all be at the school by now. Eliza should not be here at all. Many more students than she remembers are now running onto the football field in wonderment over the snow.

Is this the butterfly effect at work? Are last night's calls to Lena and Kara having a much bigger effect than Max ever expected? How is that possible? Kara didn't even pay attention to Max's warnings, so why is so much different?

Max scries into the swirling snow as if hypnotized, accessing the future as if it is a memory.

"Do you see anything now?" Lena asks Max nervously, waking Max from a momentary daze.

"Yeah," Max replies, as she steps towards Kara.

Maybe it's time for a warning.

Maybe it's too late, because what nobody can see in the unprecedented white-out conditions is a tornado that is bigger and faster than the one Max remembers.

The wind monster charges through the tree line just beyond the school grounds, tossing everything aside as it pounces into the open. The students on the football field are caught flat-footed, like a herd of deer on a field surprised by a predator. Some flee towards the school. Others stare blankly at the rapidly approaching beast.

Max calls out to Kara, but her voice is only one in a cacophony of screams and commotion.

When Kara finally looks up, she appears jittery but stands still, like a well-trained dog that was told to stay even when a ball is thrown. She covers her mouth with her hands in dismay, as fellow students are already being swallowed up by the tornado. She watches as if paralyzed while the tunnel of wind tosses the students across the field and descends quickly upon the school itself.

Max stumbles as she reaches forward to grab hold of the Danvers car, to keep herself steady in the intense gusts of wind at the edge of the tornado's orbit. She reaches out to Lena, grasping her hand, and keeping her from being dragged away, as the tornado threatens to devour everything.

Kara doesn't need any support to remain upright, as she creeps forward and beholds the devastation unfolding just a stone's throw away.

The monster rips away part of the school's roof and shatters most of the windows. The sounds of the screams from within the school are louder even than the roar of the wind and destruction, and nobody inside escapes the storm's wrath.

After just a few seconds of unthinkable violence, the tornado moves on, past the school and wreaks havoc on the school parking lot. It does not break apart like Max remembers. In fact, it gathers momentum, as it races towards the highway and is quickly rendered invisible behind a fog of snow and sleet and rain.

The total time from when the tornado appears until when it fades into the distance is less than half a minute, but every second is like a stop-frame movie, except the destruction and death in the storm's wake is very real.

A patch opens in the clouds above, letting in a column of sunlight to illuminate the devastation below. Scattered all around are pieces of the school along with the bodies of students, many of whom are struggling to their feet, while just as many remain laying still on the ground.

Max sees the news van open and cameras emerge, already preparing to document what looks like a war zone.

Max sees Kara stumbling towards ground zero, and then falling onto her knees, her face wrinkled from trying to keep a deep pain inside of her, until suddenly lasers erupt from her eyes, tearing into the ground like the engines of a rocket. She covers her eyes with her hands, trying to contain her power, but the fire scorches the air around her, and finally she releases the blast skyward and cries out a haunting wail that shatters the eerie silence like thunder.

The sky suddenly clears, as if the clouds fear retribution from the woman-child who is suddenly awakening.

Alex runs up to Kara, wrapping her arms around her, comforting her until the Kryptonian was calm enough to return her embrace.

"I just watched them," Kara cries, then repeats. "I just watched."

Max looks away, not sure what she feels more guilty about: not doing enough, or for doing anything at all last night, because as bad she thought things were in that other timeline, what she is seeing now is so much worse. .

Max sees her purse laying on the ground a few feet away. She picks it up and reaches inside, digging frantically to the bottom to where her photographs typically fall. She removes a few Polaroids at a time until she finds that photo of herself back in the Super 8.

She didn't notice Lena walking up behind her, so she's startled when she hears Lena say, "Do it."

Lena's eyes are drowning in tears.

"What if I change it again and make things even worse?" Max replies, wracked with doubt.

"I can hear what everyone is thinking," Lena explains. "I know how they feel. Believe me, nothing you do could make this worse."

Lena takes Max's hand and stares into the photo alongside Max, reassuring her that she was not making this decision alone.

Max worries that maybe going back won't be so easy this time, but she doesn't have to worry for long, as she feels dizzy on her feet and her vision starts to fade, and a moment later, everything goes completely black.


	9. 9 Dangerous & Unpredictable

**_"Be a thunderstorm ... Be dangerous and unpredictable and make a lot of noise."_**  
-Quote from the movie My Girl

The phone rings beside Lena's bed, waking her from a pleasant dream.

Like many nights, Lena was dreaming about her days in Lex's orphanage, but, for a change, this dream was not a nightmare. In fact, it was quite pleasant, as the lens in her mind's eye focused on her budding friendship with the little girl Max, and everything else was a blur.

Those were the early days in the orphanage. Lena felt so lonely back then, desperate for a friend. She barely knew Eric at all, and Max was inseparable from Chloe and was not even on Lena's radar. Max still looked like a child back then, while Lena had just hit puberty, and that had felt like a huge gulf between them. Then Max and Chloe had a fight, some minor thing about a minor insult, and Lena was there to comfort her. When Lena offered Max a hug, she swears it was only to show friendship, but Lena felt a stirring inside that she never expected.

If Max felt the same way, she never let on, and Lena's telepathy was so immature then, she couldn't discern her own thoughts from other people's. She never had time to explore her feelings, because a few weeks later, Max was adopted.

But now that Max is back in her life, she dominates Lena's dreams. Lena can't let Max get away again, and she feels like she would do anything to become even closer to Max. She never realized she could be so obsessed with a girl who might only barely remember her. She dreams of dropping by the hotel in the middle of the night, of ordering crappy hotel porn in the room, of giggling in bed as they exchange stories of the past few years they were apart.

That's when the phone rings, waking Lena from her sleep. She feels sure it is Max who is calling her. She is so sure that she doesn't check caller ID. She just answers, "Hi Max."

"Uh, hi Lena, this is Alex," the voice on the other line whispers reluctantly.

"Oh," Lena says softly, shaking her head, trying to wake up. She hears two people breathing, and she imagines that Kara and Alex are holding the phone between them. "Sorry, what's up Alex? Jeez, what time is it?"

"Around 4. Sorry we woke you, but Max just called us, and we're trying to understand what we should do."

"Huh? Why did she call you?" Lena asks, feeling both curious and jealous that Max would wake the Danvers sisters up late at night, rather than Lena herself.

"She talked with Kara. She sounded a little crazy, not making sense, but then she said that calling us was a mistake, and she told us to go back to sleep, and just do whatever we would have done if she didn't call."

Lena is wide awake, now. "Really? That's all she said? What did she mean? What was she asking you to do?"

"Yeah, that's what we asked her. I mean, she made it sound really important that we not change anything we might do today, like the future depends on it, but how could we know what we would have done? She said that we should just be ourselves, dress any way we want, and not care what anyone else thinks. Then we're, like, what should we do EXACTLY, because we don't want to screw this up. She must have had some idea, right? She can see stuff before it happens, right? But Max just said that she already said too much, that she shouldn't have called at all. She wouldn't say anything else. She just said goodbye. So, we've been lying here for like ten minutes, freaking out, and Kara thought we should call you. I mean, you know Max… What do you think she was trying to tell us?"

Lena thinks for a moment. Telepathy usually gives Lena great insight to people, but Lena can't read Max's mind. Before yesterday, she hadn't heard from Max in years. She is certainly no expert on what makes Max tick, but the younger girl has captured Lena's fancy, and she doesn't want to end the conversation by admitting that.

All Max had said was that the girls should dress and act like they usually do, and Lena is confident that she knows the Danvers girls very well. So, Lena asks Alex and Kara to stop and imagine that Max never called. Imagine that the alarm clock just rang. What is the first thing that comes to their minds?

The question seems straightforward, but quickly Lena learns that the girls barely even know themselves, or more accurately, they are not honest with themselves.

Alex says that they've been arguing since Max's call about what they would do – about what they liked doing. Alex insists that she wants to get over her inhibitions and dress sexy and maybe show more skin. Kara, on the other hand, insists that she doesn't like how people look at her anymore, and that Alex's attention is enough for her. Alex insists that Kara was right all along, and that Alex now wants to break free and stop being such a prude. Contrarily, Kara insists that she is over her exhibitionist phase.

Lena jumps in, laughing, "you two are adorable, pretending to be like each other, just to prove your love. Alex, did you forget that I can read your mind? You only put on that show in the mall to support Kara, trying to prove you weren't jealous and that you can break the rules, too. And Kara, it's obvious to everyone that you like when people look at you. You don't need to pretend to be something you're not just to make each other happy. A better proof of love is being yourself and believing the other person will still love you anyway."

Alex is stunned by what Lena says, and after a moment she says, "Wow, Lena, you are scary good at this."

"Right?" Kara says, excited to be honest for a change. "You are so happy in black clothes and long pants and dark makeup, Alex, and I think that's so sexy!"

Alex laughs. "And you are happy wearing as little clothes and makeup as possible, and I love that about you. I know you guys were all like nudists back on Krypton and there is nothing sexual about it."

"What do you mean?" Kara asks, confused.

"Well, I read some stuff on nudist groups online, and it said that when people walk around in the nude all of the time, they don't even notice it anymore. It's like not sexy at all," Alex explains. "And I read that they have these rules like 'no staring' and 'no sexy clothes' and guys have to hide … it … if they get, you know, turned on."

"That's not what people did on Krypton," Kara explains with a laugh, as if the idea was crazy. "Most guilds didn't have any rules at all, not even for kids. Everyone was very flirty."

"What?" Alex replies, shocked.

"Nobody hid anything from us," Kara explains casually. "I remember sometimes girls were walking around town, and these random guys would watch them and jerk off. It seems weird now, but it was normal back then"

"Oh my God!" Alex gasps. "You flirted with those guys?"

"Oh, no! Everyone thought they were rude, like when a guy on Earth whistles at a pretty girl walking by. But they usually just watched and did their thing, so we ignored them."

Lena laughs uncontrollably. "Krypton sounds just like walking around the mall here, except that on Earth, sex-starved voyeurs see through clothes with their mind's eyes and jerk off in their heads."

"Ugh! Is everyone sick in the head?!" Alex says, disgusted, then suddenly ashamed. "What about me? I mean, what I did in the mall… am I a …?"

"Maybe everybody is a little sick," Lena agrees, but adds, "but everyone is complicated, too. It's not fair to say that boys are creeps, and it's not fair to say that girls are sluts. We are animals, and we punish ourselves for it rather than deal with it. Everyone flirts and salivates and then wants to jump off a cliff to get away from that weak loser inside of us who can't control themselves. It sounds sick the way it plays out on Krypton, but maybe it was better there, with all of that bullshit out in the open. Maybe people really got to know each other, there. I feel like I'm the only person who knows how people really feel around here."

"Well, I'm not ashamed of my body, and I'm not ashamed about how I feel about you," Alex says to Kara, "but I don't know how you could just shrug off a bunch of people looking at you and jerking off. How did you do it?"

"Oh, I never had to do that myself," Kara says. "They never jerked off when looking at **_me_**."

"Why not? Are you saying that they didn't have pedophiles there?" Lena asks optimistically.

"No, they had creeps there, too, but my family was in the Science Guild, so we never walked around naked," Kara says casually.

"What?" Alex exclaims in surprise, then pauses for a moment. "You told us that people walked around naked on Krypton."

"They did. Everyone except those of us in the Science Guild. Our group taught that sex and anything exciting got in the way of our science."

"But you told me that you never wore panties or bras," Alex says, trying to understand. "And when you walked around naked at home, you said it was normal on Krypton."

"It _was_ normal," Kara insists. "Just not for us in the Science Guild. We never wore underwear, but we wore clothes most of the time. I was jealous of the other guilds. I was supposed to choose my own guild when I was of age, but I never had a chance."

The phone is then silent for so long that Lena thinks she might be disconnected.

But then Alex states. "You never told me that before. You always told mom and dad that you walked around in the nude in lots of places on Krypton."

"No, I said that **_people_** walked around like that," Kara corrects, parsing words. "I didn't myself, but I always wanted to."

Lena can't help but laugh. "You had us both fooled! No wonder you are so passionately against a dress code; you've been forced into one your whole life, while everyone around you were totally free. I can't believe I never caught on before."

"I never meant to fool you," Kara says sadly.

"Sure you did!" Lena calls her out. It's obvious to her that Kara had kept this a secret, a lie by omission, and she's now trying to sneak the confession in below the radar. But Lena loves seeing Kara's sly side. "Don't pretend and don't apologize. You're a fucking rebel! You always were. You felt trapped on Krypton and your mom even knew it. Now, her letter to you makes more sense."

"You think so?" Kara asks.

"Absolutely! She wrote in the letter over and over about how you aren't beholden to anyone and how you should always be yourself and make your own choices. She knew you felt trapped back on Krypton, and she wanted you to feel free here."

"I can't believe you never told me all that stuff about Krypton," Alex complains. "I get it that you didn't want mom to know that, but why not tell me?"

"You never asked me about my life there," Kara defends herself meekly. "Are you angry?"

Kara's defense was weak, so Lena expects at least a brief argument to ensue. Instead, all she hears on the phone are the clear sounds of smooching and heavy breathing, as the girls are kissing with the phone still between them. Obviously, the revelation is the not a problem to Alex.

"So, what should I wear to school today?" Kara finally asks, bringing the conversation back to the original topic.

Lena isn't sure if Kara is asking Alex or herself, but she decides to answer, anyway. "Come on, stop pretending like it doesn't matter to you! There are no shy rebels! You love the attention, so take the bad with the good. Be dangerous and unpredictable and make a lot of noise. Isn't that what this whole thing is about? - not letting people tell us what we should do? Make the world what you want it to be!"

"That's great advice," Alex says reluctantly, with an oddly sad voice.

Lena wonders if she's pushing too hard. But what do they expect, calling a confirmed hedonist like her for advice, anyway? "Well, you know me, I don't know the meaning of the word 'restraint'. Your friends are behind you no matter what you do."

"That's true," Alex says to reassure Kara, but her voice cracks, leaking jealousy. Whenever Kara talks to Lena too long, Alex feels jealous, even though she doesn't admit it, even to herself.

Then the kissing and heavy breathing take over the phone again. Suddenly Alex giggles. Did Kara tickle her?

"Lena, thank you so much," Kara says over sounds of tumbling on Kara's bed.

"Yes, sorry we woke you up. We'll let you go back to sleep," Alex adds before a new round of giggles.

"No problem," Lena says, then suddenly the phone is disconnected. "Just call me any time of night, I don't mind," she adds sarcastically, as if someone was still listening.

She wonders what just happened.

She couldn't read Alex's thoughts through the phone, but there is no mistaking the shadow of jealousy in Alex's voice. No doubt calling Lena was Kara's idea, not Alex's. She can be a good friend, but Alex will always feel jealous of Lena and Eric and Bobby and anyone else that Kara shares herself with, and then Kara will always have to reassure Alex that she is the only one.

Suddenly, Lena understands something quirky about the Danvers sisters' relationship: Kara's urge to flash and flirt strengthens their relationship in an odd way. Showing off turns Kara on, yet Alex's touch is the only thing that satisfies. When Alex feels jealous, Kara will immediately shower her with attention, making them both feel sorry, and then everything is fixed with a passionate make up session.

Do they even realize what they are doing? Probably not, but after discovering Kara's sneaky side a few minutes ago, Lena is not sure. Now, the cycle of push and pull makes more sense to Lena. It's a pattern of behavior: First, the girls have some kind of struggle, then Kara does something provocative, then they go through an intense make up period when they are crazy in love, then there is another struggle, then maybe Alex does something provocative, and it starts all over again. When the game gets too intense, they come back to Lena to be assured that nothing is wrong with them.

Was that why Kara chose now to reveal her secret about Krypton? - to make Alex feel jealous? Did Kara even know what she was doing?

Lena feels disappointed to learn that the Danvers are just as dysfunctional as every other relationship out there. It's a reminder of how fucked up relationships always end up being.

But the truth is that Lena longs for a fucked-up relationship like theirs. Whenever she sees how much they love each other, Lena feels all the more lonely.

It's strange that reading minds, always knowing the truth, really kills intimacy. Love needs a little mystery. Lovers unveil secrets seductively. Telepaths steal secrets without asking, betraying the whole game of love.

But Kara is a mystery Lena cannot penetrate. Kara's emotions are easy to read, but her alien secrets are unfathomable, and Lena arrogantly pretends that she understands completely.

If Alex knew how much Lena envied her relationship with Kara, she would keep Kara as far away from Lena as possible. Until recently, nobody could spark Lena's imagination like the enigmatic Kryptonian could.

But now there is another mystery girl: a sweet caterpillar from Lena's past that had disappeared and then came back as a butterfly.

Lena rests her head down on the pillow and tries to remember the dream those insecure Danvers sisters had so rudely interrupted fifteen minutes ago.

The dream where Lena and Max were together, far away from school, and far away from friends.

But one question keeps Lena awake: Why did Max call the Danvers sisters instead of her?

X X X

Lena wakes up again at 6 AM, shortly before her usual rise-and-shine time, due to a chirp from her cellphone. She hopes it's a text from Max, so she grabs the phone quickly. Instead, she finds three texts from Eric.

 _Mrs Clifford is letting Cookie drive to school_

 _She invited me to go along_

 _You want to come?_

Lena knows she should smile and go along happily, but now she feels a little jealous of Eric and Cookie. Everyone has someone special except her, she thinks.

Then she laughs sadly, thinking of how much jealousy there is in her little group of friends.

On impulse, she decides to do something about it.

Lena types:

 _That's great, but Max and I are going in together_

Even if Max doesn't know it yet.

 _Cool. See you there_

 _You too_

Lena doesn't pause for an instant. She finds Max on her phone and presses the call button.

If she gets Max to agree to join her on the bus right away, then she won't feel like she just lied.

"Hello," Lena hears Max's sleep laden voice answering.

"Hey, baby girl. Did I wake you?"

"Yeah, but I should be awake already, so thanks for the wake-up call. So … what's up?"

"Do you want to take the bus in today?" Lena asks hopefully. "We could meet at the bus stop."

"A taxi is already scheduled to pick me up. Maybe you want to take a taxi to school instead?"

A half-hour later, Lena arrives at the hotel and finds Max waiting just outside of the lobby, wearing a coat over her new butterfly shirt, and jeans that look naturally faded. The outfit is topped off with a red beanie on her pretty head.

"You made it," Max says with a smile.

"Of course," Lena replies, then nods at Max's clothes. "Why are you hiding your cute bod under all of this stuff? It's like 70 out. Don't you feel hot?"

"Yeah, but I gotta hunch that we're in for a chill," Max says mysteriously.

Lena nods. "Is that part of your prediction last night?"

Max stares at Lena, surprised.

"The Danvers called me last night," Lena explains. "They told me you called them first and were acting all weird."

"Oh shit!" Max says with a grimace. "I really hope I didn't screw it all up. I knew I should have kept it to myself, but it was so hard to just wait in bed and do nothing."

"What is going on?" Lena asked. "Is this like in those time travel movies where everyone is afraid to mess with the past?"

Max nods. "What did you tell them?"

Lena shrugs. "Well, you told them to forget that you called and do what they'd normally do. Well, guess what: you screwed with their heads so much, their brains freezed up, so that kind of backfired. They asked me to tell them what I thought they would do, as if I'm an expert on all things Kara and Alex. I don't even know what I'll do from day to day. So, we talked for a while and, well, you know I always have advice for everyone, even if it's not the right advice…"

Max looks concerned. "Did you tell them what you think they _would_ do? Or did you tell them what you think they _should_ do?"

"Uh," Lena hesitates, as she realizes she made a mistake. "I guess I told them to do everything people tell them they _shouldn't_ do."

"Why am I not surprised," Max says, more teasing than angry.

Lena grins mischievously. "When I was really small, I asked my mom for a puppy, and you know what she told me?"

"What?"

"She said, 'Lena, you don't have the heart to train a puppy. If he shits on the floor, you'd give him a treat,'" Lena laughs, thinking of a time when her mom was much happier.

Max laughs, too. "That's you in a nutshell! Well, maybe this is for the best. What Kara actually did on her own didn't work out so well, and what I wanted for her to do turned out much worse. I guess this path is worth a try."

Lena stares at Max. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

Just then, the taxi arrives, and Max says, "Let's talk about it after the ride."

But Max's story of time travel and scandal and destruction and tragedy is too big to wait for long.

They get in the cab, and the driver is apparently the only taxi driver in town who doesn't like to chat. They are stuck sitting quietly in the back, and they have enough discipline to wait for about one minute, but then the car gets stuck in traffic, and the silence becomes too much to bear. Lena demands some answers, and Max unloads all of the pertinent facts in frantic whispers. The driver looks at them wide-eyed through the mirror, so he must have heard some of it. Finally, the taxi arrives after driving 20 minutes. They could have almost walked it in that time and had more privacy. By the time they arrive at school, Max has completely reviewed her two previous trips through today and has totally convinced Lena that she isn't crazy at all.

Despite the bad traffic, they arrive at school before any of the buses. They hang around by the curb, anxiously waiting for whatever comes next.

"So, what happens to me when you go back in time?" Lena wonders. She's seen enough scifi flicks to know how messed up this situation is. "I mean, I know you just wake up, remembering everything. What is it like for people like me? Is it like dying? Am I reincarnated into the past somehow? Or do you just jump into another universe that has a different version of me, and that another me continues in the other timeline?"

Max throws up her hands. "You're asking me?"

"Who else can I ask? It's kind of a scary thought that I might be whooshed out of existence the next time you look at a photo," Lena says.

Max stares at Lena sadly. "Yeah, every time I think of it, this power seems like an even bigger deal. It's really scary."

"Yeah," Lena agrees. "So … what happens now?"

Max shakes her head. "I'm not sure. I might have changed everything with that phone call last night. I never realized how big of an impact little things can have. I think the first thing we can expect is Kara's bus will arrive, but the Danvers won't be in there. Then maybe the news van will pull up the road behind the bus."

Events transpire exactly as Max predicted, which is strangely reassuring. Although both times Max had gone through this day before did not end well, the girls find it comforting that some things were predictable.

"What next?" Lena asks.

"Some more buses, then maybe Cookie and Eric arrive… I'm not sure. That only happened once."

But Max was right again.

They greet Cookie and Eric at the curb. They have no time to explain any of their concerns to their friends before Max's biggest prediction begins to come true: The clouds gather and a cold wind blows.

The odd weather causes a commotion among the large gathering of students. Many underdressed girls sneak inside, while the warmer dressed students hang around outside, amused by the meteorological anomaly.

Finally, Kara and Alex appear from the tree-line in the distance. They are barely visible under the increasingly overcast sky. At first glance, they almost look like a bride and groom walking side-by-side. Alex is dressed all in the black, and Kara is dressed all in white.

As they approach, the idyllic illusion quickly shatters.

Alex is wearing a long-sleeve blouse and long silken slacks over shiny, black high heels. She looks elegant and totally decent, apart from a slight jiggle of her bosom as she walks.

Kara is a whole other story, and even Lena gasps at her audacity. She's wearing a large white t-shirt with the Kryptonian S drawn in rainbow-colored markers in the center of her chest. And she wears **_nothing_** else, not even shoes. In calm weather, her excuse for a dress might not seem so scandalous, because the shirt would fall a few inches below her butt, and her girly figure would completely disappear on the bulk of the garment. But the weather is not calm at all, and Kara clearly welcomes the scandal that the winds direct. She protects her well-groomed hair with both hands from the strong breezes, yet she shamelessly lets the wind have its way with her shirt below.

To Lena, the school grounds feels like an auditorium that has just gone silent, as everyone stops whatever they were doing, and they gaze at Kara.

"Wowser!" Max says and looks at Lena accusingly. "Is this what you thought she'd do?"

"Not exactly," Lena says, laughing, wondering how much credit or blame she should take for Kara's actions. She thought Kara might just dress without underwear, as she often did, and maybe tease people a little. Lena thought there was a balance between Kara's inner exhibitionist and her shyness, but Kara is letting the shy girl go completely. She wants everything exposed, at last, and that includes a lot more than just exposing her body.

Kara's shirt billows and flutters like a flag, leaving nothing at all to the imagination, while the sisters promenade towards their friends.

As they approach, Alex crosses her arms against her chest, protecting herself from the suddenly cold weather. The temperature doesn't bother Kara at all. She lowers her arms when the group is finally together, trapping her shirt close to her body. She does this for comfort rather than any sense of decorum, and she doesn't even try to keep the bottom of her shirt from flapping around in the wind and continuing to tease a hundred eyes with rapid flashes of her flesh.

It's a wonder that Lena senses no backlash from the many students Kara walks past.

Somehow Kara's blasé attitude towards her unclothed form appears innocent, like a nude figure in mythology that doesn't understand her own eroticism. But Lena knows that Kara understands that power very well. Unlike her other powers, this one is shared by girls and women all over the world, and was shared all over Krypton as well, but Kara only recently has begun to use it. She had envied the sexual freedom of other guilds on Krypton, and she had allowed Earth authorities to limit her further, until Lena had urged her on a few months ago, and now, finally, she is claiming that freedom for herself without reservation. Now she is transformed completely from that shy, uncertain girl to a beacon of confidence and sensuality.

Alex doesn't share Kara's confidence, but neither is she jealous of all the attention Kara is getting. She has encouraged this, and she is sharing in Kara's moment. This is a big step forward for Alex.

Eric is plainly feeling turned on by the spectacle. He pulls Cookie in close to reassure his girlfriend that he's in love with her.

Cookie leans into him, but she's not jealous either. She knows Kara's effect on her boyfriend. She knew it from the start. Eric can lie to Cookie about anything, except his feelings. But that certainty cleanses her of any jealousy. Eric's attraction to Kara always seems to energize his love for Cookie as well, just as it energizes everyone around him, and always has. In fact, Lena knows for a fact that Cookie would like a three way with Kara and Eric, if Alex were out of the picture.

Even other girlfriends of other wide-eyed boys don't resent Kara, as long as Eric is around. Resentment and jealousy just can't survive when Eric's heart is expanding, affecting everyone's heart around him. That passion Eric had felt towards Kara in the school lab turned Kara into a sexual sweetheart. His passion for Cookie had softened Lex's heart and had transformed her reputation at school. And now Lena can feel it transform the crowd's reaction when seeing a nearly naked teenaged girl walking around out in the open.

But there was something else at work here as well. Something more pure and admirable. Kara was nearly naked, but she was clothed in strength. Despite her small stature and child-like face, Kara holds her head high. Her posture is perfect. Her gait is sublime. She watches people watching her with a smile. She loves the attention and admiration, be it sexual or otherwise. She never looked so self-possessed before now.

The combination of Eric's irresistible aura, Kara's adolescent beauty, her carriage and maybe even her pheromones, come together like a perfect storm, grabbing everyone's attention, so much so that they don't see the literal storm that is heading their way, until it is too late.

The tornado arrives as fast and furiously as Max had predicted, and even with all that warning, Lena is stunned by its power. It rips through the tree line, tossing branches like twigs into the air that never seem to fall back to the ground. It spits out rain, sleet and snow as it bears down on the school.

Max grabs at Lena's arm, trying to pull her towards safety, but Lena won't budge.

She's captivated by Kara, who leaps into the tornado as though she were fully clothed in a superhero costume. Nobody standing on the football field escapes as the wind tunnel pounces after them, but Kara snags every one of them out of the monster's grasp, placing them gently on the ground before saving the next. Lena counts 6 rescues, before Kara flies back into the swirling winds and tames the storm with a single breath. A blast of wind radiates in every direction, when suddenly the tornado is gone, leaving everyone and everything in sight unharmed. A few moments later, the sun peaks back through the clouds.

Kara floats back down like a feather with her friends, who have barely moved, like nothing just happened. She had acted without thinking, and the crisis was over before the crowd had time to panic.

Maybe students hadn't even moved, and they look at Kara with the same amazed expression they had before, only their jaws have dropped further. The wind no longer blows up her shirt, but the blast of rain has left the shirt nearly transparent, and she looks just as naked as before. The sense of strength she exhibited only a minute before is now magnified many times.

It is an awe-inspiring moment that leaves everyone speechless.

Everyone except for Alex, anyway. "Are you alright?" Alex asks almost in a panic, even though Kara doesn't look troubled in the least.

"I think so," Kara says, then she sees the many witnessing eyes looking back at her. Of course, she had come here today expecting a lot of attention, but as a regular rebel girl standing up for self-expression. The magnitude of what she just did is only hitting her now, and she goes from calm to almost giddily excited in just a few seconds. "Oh Rao, I did it!"

"Are you ready for this?" Lena asks.

"I think so," Kara replies.

"People are going to talk about you, and it won't always be pretty," Cookie warns knowingly. "This is big time, now."

Kara nods now more soberly, as several students she just saved approach to thank her.

But before they have a chance, a reporter nudges an opening and steps up to Kara and sticks a microphone in her face.

"Cat Grant, WCBS," she introduces herself. "That was quite heroic what you just did. Can we ask you a few questions?

"Sure!" Kara says eagerly, disregarding all of the warnings Eliza had instilled in her over the past 2 years.

Cat Grant smiles and clears a little space for the news camera.

"We can't record her like this!" her cameraman whispers to Cat. "It's illegal."

Cat waves her hand dismissively and whispers back. "We'll edit it in the van."

Then she turns back to the girl she wants to introduce to the world. "That was an amazing show of heroics, young lady! What is your name?"

"Kara Danvers," Kara replies.

"Well, considering you are wearing one of those S's on your chest, I'm thinking that you have another name as well," Cat prompts.

"Kara Zor-El," Kara admits.

"So tell me, Kara Zor-El, is that how they dressed on Krypton, or are you taking this school dress code revolt a little too far?"

Kara doesn't know how to answer.

"Would you like to put something on before we talk any further?" Cat encourages while handing over her jacket.

Kara shakes her head, declining.

"You don't want any of us to get into trouble, do you?" Cat asks, offering the jacket again. "You could be charged with indecent exposure, and we could be charged with child pornography if any footage got out."

"Why?" Kara replies indignantly, still refusing the jacket. "This is just my body. Nobody is being hurt. Nobody is looking away. Everyone sees more than this every day on the internet. What difference does my age make?"

"Because there are sex offenders out there," Cat explains. "You might not need protection from them, but other girls do."

Kara is stumped by this argument.

So Lena takes over the debate, saying loudly, "Do you ban people from driving Ferraris, because crooks are tempted to steal them? Do you ban black men from walking the streets at night because racist cops might fuck them over? But sure, go ahead, ban the girl from being proud, all because some guy can't control himself. What if a pervert gets turned on by normal clothes? Would you then insist that girls wear a burkas? When do we stop excusing the criminals?"

Cat is undeterred. "Ask me again in a few years, when you try to explain to your son why everyone has seen their mother naked, flirting in public. Ask me again when your seven-year-old sister is abused by the sick groundskeeper at school."

"How do clothes stop sick men from abusing children?" Kara asks, confused. "And why would someone's son feel bad if people thought his mom was hot?"

Lena feels Cat's gears moving, preparing to engage, but arguments elude her. Lena wondered if she and Kara were really so persuasive, or maybe Eric was rigging the contest for them covertly.

Cat smiles at the rebellious teens. "You are both bright girls, but let me ask you this, Kara: You are clearly the most powerful girl in the world. You have so much to offer. Why would you want to distract people from everything you are with gratuitous displays of your pretty but ordinary assets?"

Kara thinks for a moment. "Because these ordinary assets make me feel human."

X X X

Kara's last line about feeling human quickly becomes the most memorable line from Cat's interview.

While the television networks are understandably less eager than Kara about showing her body, a few blurry cell phone photos make it around the internet within hours, and, soon after that, creative geeks fill Google searches with creative enhancements of Kara's naked form. Kara isn't offended. In fact, she finds most of them quite funny, especially one where her AA cup boobs are magnified to DD size.

Unfortunately, Eric's mediating power only has local impact, so Kara's uncensored expression and philosophy become highly controversial, distracting from her status as a hero, just as Cat predicted. Only a few months ago, Kara was crippled by worries about her reputation, but now she easily shrugs off millions of attacks on her character, perhaps because a million other voices are on her side.

Still, Kara's drive to show off her body wavers now that the whole world sees her as human and definitely a girl. She doesn't feel ashamed about anything, but her exhibitionism was driven more by a need to assert her identity than any sexual compulsion, and now that her humanity and sexuality are confirmed to the whole world, another part of her identity demands recognition. She wants to be a hero.

She always wanted to be a hero, but also believed it was out of her reach. First her foster parents warned her that it was too dangerous. Then the FBI tried to bribe her to keep hiding behind her Danvers last name, but never explained why. Well, no more. She's got a taste for it now, and she believes she can handle anything.

She allows Cat a follow-up interview where she explains to the world that being a hero is more important to her than her attitudes about clothes, and it is a public-relations triumph. Only one day after this interview airs, a famous costume designer from Hollywood delivers a gorgeous outfit, complete with a cape. It screams out hero, and it is sexy yet culturally acceptable for a 15-year-old girl. For some people, her reputation was shot the moment those photos leaked on the internet, but other people, who were unsure, now accept her as Supergirl.

The biggest challenge for Kara is that now she has no secret identity. She can't go back home to the Danvers house.

This is not only a problem for Kara, but also for her friends. Almost immediately after Kara revealed herself to the world, reporters scoured the landscape to learn anything and everything about her, and Lena's, Eric's and Max's past came under scrutiny. They were quickly identified as three teens who were kidnapped by Lex and experimented on in his "orphanage" as children. The former hostages know it's only a matter of days before their own abilities are uncovered. They cannot go home, either.

Fortunately, all four of them, along with Alex and Cookie, hide from the paparazzi in the Super 8 hotel with Max. Their whereabouts is almost immediately discovered, but the hotel likes the attention the teens are bringing in, so they offer them two free rooms for a week and promise privacy.

That promise proves impossible to keep, and the hotel immediately regrets their offer, because the cost in security is formidable. But they are true to their word, giving the teens a week to come up with an exit strategy.

X X X

The hotel offers their special guests three adjacent rooms, connected by doors, so they never need to walk through the hallways. Each room is among the most expensive lodgings the hotel offers, and each comes with a king-sized bed.

Max's original room in the hotel paled in comparison. The new rooms are furnished with giant plasma televisions. One has a full kitchen, and another has a jacuzzi. Alex and Kara take one room. Cookie and Eric take another. Max and Lena take the middle room, and they don't mind sharing the bed.

The one luxury the hotel lacks is Wi-Fi, but the friends keep up with the outside world through news reports on television. That is all the contact they want for the moment. Their sudden celebrity status overwhelms them. They realize they will need to live in a secure space like the hotel after their stay ends, to maintain their privacy. Maybe they could move to Hollywood, where residents might be more accustomed to such problems.

Kara never really appreciated how important Kal-El's identity as Clark is until she loses her identity as an ordinary schoolgirl. Although she feels like she is a hero by calling, she would be lost without her identity of Kara Danvers and without her friends.

After the dramatic events with the tornado and a swarm of interviews and paparazzi, Kara gives up on being a hero for a few days, until she can stabilize her life.

For the first two days in the hotel, the teens open their doors, making the hotel space feel like a three-bedroom suite. Then they close the doors at night for privacy – or at least as much privacy as is possible when one room has a telepath and another has super-ears and a third radiates emotion.

Most of the time, they pull a few comforters into Max's room and they all sit together on the floor or bed and listen to old records or watch television. On the third day, they discover that porn channels are unlocked on their televisions. Of course, they are going to watch it.

They sit down around the screen, some on the bed, some on the floor, gobbling popcorn like they are in a cinema. The porno starts with a fancy intro, promising good production values. Then it cuts to a rather ordinary home. The doorbell rings. A pretty woman answers, and a large man shows up delivering a new mattress. He installs the mattress and then shows her how to use it.

It's shockingly stupid and fun, but it's also awkward to watch in a group, so Lena turns the sound down, and they talk over the programming while never quite looking away.

They crack a few jokes, but quickly their worries about the future surface.

"Eric and I decided to stay at my parent's house," Cookie reluctantly says. "We'll come back here every day, of course, but my mom wants me back home and going to school. She thinks we can handle the media. We had to go through this before when Lex was convicted."

Eric nods, but everyone feels a wave of regret rolling off of him. "We have to move on from here eventually."

"What about your power? Reporters will be all over you, harassing you about what you can do," Alex says, transferring her worries for Kara onto Eric.

Eric shrugs. "You guys are the only people who really even know what I can do. It feels more like a condition than a power. I think they'll ignore me."

"They'll probably ignore me, too," Max adds.

"You should probably go back to be with your mom, Max," Lena suggests regretfully. "Kara and I are the only people those jackals are really interested in. Too many people know about my ability, and besides, they know Lex is my brother, now, so they'll never leave me alone."

"I'm not going anywhere!" Max insists, leaning into Lena. "Remember my mom has already packed up our home in Oregon, so where would I go, anyway?"

"My mom already told me not to go home," Alex adds. "She told me that reporters are pretty much camping out around the house. She's trying to rent a room here until everything blows over."

"I'm sorry I got you all into this," Kara takes all of the blame. "I was being selfish, wanting attention. Careful what you wish for, right?"

Max shakes her head vigorously. "It was much worse when you weren't being yourself! Don't forget you just saved dozens of people."

"I only saved six people," Kara corrects.

"No, if you hadn't snuffed out of that tornado, it would have killed a lot more," Max insists. "Besides, saving even one person is a big deal. Really, everything that has happened could be good news. We just don't know it yet."

Kara smiles, feeling a little better about herself.

"What do you mean?" Alex asks.

"We can do a lot more to help people than when people thought we were just kids in school."

Lena jumps in, "Yeah, we could be like a super-team or something."

Cookie laughs. "Don't forget about us muggles when you form your league of super-teens."

Lena doesn't laugh back. "You guys didn't need any special powers when you saved me from my brother, did you? Alex, you are the one who got everyone to that military base."

Alex points at Cookie, "And Eric couldn't have used his power without you."

Eric blushes at that.

Everyone laughs.

"We really would make a good team," Kara says enthusiastically.

"It's a good thing that we have a straight couple in our team," Max says half-jokingly. "I wonder if people would accept us if we were all lesbians."

It does not get by Lena that Max includes herself among the "lesbians". She had been really coy about that even when they were sharing the same bed together. They had stayed respectfully on their own sides of the bed. Lena never really knew if Max felt the same way she does. Lena loved the mystery, but she loves seeing the mystery solved even more, and this was one hell of a clue.

The room goes quiet, because everyone notices the clue at the same time. Everyone had been wondering.

The two girls who are already sitting side-by-side lock eyes for a moment.

The moment goes on.

Their faces get warm.

Then their faces move closer together until their lips touch.

They wrap their arms around each other, suddenly laughing between kisses, while the other girls cheer them on, and the faint music of the porno in the background sets a very warm mood.

Everyone looks up when the door to the hotel room shakes.

Nobody is prepared for what happens next.

X X X

Kara is the first to sense that something is wrong, but it is already too late to stop it.

The teens are given only one second of warning when the doorknob to the room jiggles. Then they hear wood cracking and a loud thud as the door is completely ripped away.

Kara is on her feet in an instant, on guard, as three large men enter the room. They each look like they would make good bouncers. Very fit. Very tough looking.

The largest of the men carries an axe.

"What do you want?" Kara asks firmly, trying to look impressive as she hovers in the air.

"Who are you?" The man asks back.

"Kara Danvers," she replies obediently.

Then, before Kara can respond, he reaches out and grabs her by the throat.

"No!" he yells. His voice shakes the walls. "You are Kara Zor-El!"

Kara tries to fly out of his grip, but his giant fingers hold firm like a vice, pressing in her windpipe. Kara tries to pull his hand away, but his fingers barely budge. She realizes in horror that he could crush her windpipe with just that one hand. She scratches his hand and he winces, giving her a small hope, but then he raises his other hand, holding a strange glowing axe and touches her face. He lightly rubs the blade against her face, and Kara can feel it cutting into her skin. She stops resisting.

He loosens his grip a little, letting her breathe. Kara coughs. Tears well in her eyes, as much from fear as from the pain he is inflicting on her.

Eric stands up, wanting to help Kara, but one of the other men points at him, and Eric is thrown to the ground without anyone touching him.

"I am Vartox," says the man holding Kara by the throat. "You might not remember me, but your mother surely would. I promised revenge for what she did to us back on Krypton, but I never thought I'd get the opportunity. Not until you showed up."

Kara's fear turns to determination, as she punches the axe out of Vortox's hand, sending it crashing through the wall. Then she kicks him with incredible force in the balls, causing him to groan, but not crippling him.

He grabs her throat with his other hand and squeezes until Kara's eyes bulge in fear.

"You little bitch!" he growls. "Try that again, and I'll take it out on your friends while you watch."

Kara stops struggling and shakes her head. "No, please," she rasps.

"That's better," he says, then grabs her by the arms, spins her around and bends her over the bureau, knocking everything off onto the floor. He tears off her clothes like they are tissue paper, then releases her while he undoes his belt buckle, daring her to make a move. When she remains still, his voice lowers while he considers his prey. "If you please us, maybe we'll let you live."

Kara's eyes fill with tears, though she doesn't cry out or fight. She swallows when he pushes her legs apart and presses her head into the wood, which cracks under the force. She looks at her friends, who are also crying helplessly on the floor, watching as these monsters prepare to rape her.

Alex seems to be struggling against an invisible force, trying to get to Kara, but Kara hopes she stops. Kara is willing to put up with anything, if it keeps Alex and her friends safe.

She sees Max slowly reaching for a Polaroid photo that had fallen off the bureau. Kara nods to her. It feels like their only chance.

Then she closes her eyes hard as fingers explore between her legs. One of the other brutes walks in front of her and grabs her hair. She doesn't want to see what he has in mind.

"Oh, yeah, you want it, don't you? Do you think you can handle my Valorian cock?" Vartox says.

Kara feels his dick rub up against her privates, and she steels herself, preparing for his entry. The Earth seems to shake beneath her, and she feels like she is passing out.

X X X

Kara sits up in bed in a cold sweat, yelling, "No!"

"What?" Alex says, suddenly awake herself. "Are you okay."

"No," Kara says, tears in her eyes. "I … I had a nightmare. It was horrible."

"What were you dreaming about?"

"I – I," Kara starts, but her memory of the nightmare quickly disintegrates like a sandcastle when hit by an ocean wave. "I don't know."

"It's okay," Alex whispers, cooing, and holding Kara gently.

Kara shivers at her touch for a moment, then she sinks into her embrace.

She looks at the clock beside the bed. It reads 4:04 AM.


	10. 10 Haggling with Destiny

"Everything one has a right to do is not best to be done."

-Benjamin Franklin

It's back again in October 2016.

Alex's math teacher goes over some complicated theorem involving circles and tangents, while Alex stares at her textbook, as if studying hard, but in reality, she is only waiting for the hand on the clock to indicate 11:30.

Alex can't keep her mind on her classwork. In fact, the entire class is a blur, and she can only think of the horrible task demanded of her. She tries to focus on the individual steps and not the consequences because if she stops to consider her reasons and who might get hurt, she'll never go through with it. And it has to be done. She has to prove to Cookie and the others that nothing is going on between Kara and herself. Kara is just a strange girl living in the Danvers household, nothing more. She has to prove that lie to herself, more than to anyone else. Even if it destroys her.

Sweat drips down her brow as if she is going on a suicide mission.

When the time finally arrives, she delays another two minutes, then raises her hand and asks to visit the ladies room.

The teacher usually tests students' intentions with a skeptical glance, but he dismisses Alex with a wave of the hand. Apparently, the sweaty, chalky-white skin on Alex's face is evidence enough of her distress. He has no idea how deep that distress goes.

Once in the empty hallway, Alex walks briskly around the corner, past the restrooms, then all of the way to the other side of the school. Finally, she stops at her locker. She expertly spins the three numbers on the combination lock, and the locker clicks open without a fuss.

She pauses. The locker never opens that easily. She takes that as proof of how clearly she is thinking. Precise. Cold. Heart of steel. She reaches inside the locker and pulls out a large manila envelope and a roll of Scotch tape.

She takes a deep breath as she shuts the door, then she walks down the hall, putting some distance between herself and her locker.

She reaches into the envelope and removes several sheets of paper that make her fingers itch at the touch.

These are the StudentBody lists of the beautiful and the ugly girls at Leesburg High.

Now her hands begin to shake. Alex curses at herself for being weak. She clumsily tapes a copy of the foul list to the wall alongside the lockers. She walks a few steps, then pulls out another sheet and nimbly tapes this one to a locker. Now that she's gotten her feet wet, she attaches the third sheet without hesitation. She feels more comfortable. She feels like soldiers feel after their first kill. The first is the hardest, she hopes, and that is now behind her. She feels numb, but she doesn't dare look at her handiwork. As long as she doesn't look, then it's only a sheet of paper.

Tears form in her eyes, belying everything she's trying to prove. She curses herself again as if to magically suppress the emotion bubbling up within, but then she fumbles one of the sheets onto the floor. She doesn't pause to pick it up, but instead pulls out another and continues the betrayal without delay.

Soon, she hears footsteps approaching from around a corner down the hall, so she slips the tape into her loose blouse and holds the folder to her side as casually as she can. When two girls and a boy round the corner at the end of the hall, Alex stares firmly at the ground, avoiding eye contact. The possibility of witnesses stimulates her feelings of guilt. She wants to walk right by them and make her escape. She has no intention of distributing the rest of the copies. If she would post any more, she would never be able to stop the tears, and her guilt would be plain to anyone who might see her. She has already posted nearly a dozen sheets in the hallway. That should be enough proof for Cookie and her friends.

As she approaches the other teens, they spread out in front of Alex, like a barrier, forcing her to look up. She quickly recognizes Eric Dominello and Lena Thorul. She doesn't recognize the small brunette with them. It doesn't matter. Why are they blocking her path? Are they trying to bully her? she wonders. She's not in the mood for this bullshit, so she shoves Eric out of her way and tries to walk away quickly.

"Do you really want to hurt Kara?" Lena asks before Alex can escape down the hall.

Alex stops walking.

When she looks back, she sees them pulling the copies she had taped up off the walls, and picking up the copies she had dropped.

"Hey," Alex complains as she watches them undo her traitorous work. She doesn't try to stop them, and she doesn't run away. She feels paralyzed, exposed and utterly ashamed.

Now, with all of the evidence removed from the hallways, they approach Alex.

"We need to talk," Lena says.

"No, we don't," Alex says emphatically, shaking her head. "Okay, you got me, but I don't care. Go ahead, show them to the principal. Just let me go kill myself in peace."

"How about I show these to your sister, instead?" Eric says sharply.

Alex stares at the ground and shivers. She suddenly can't remember how to breathe.

Lena puts her hand on Alex's shoulder as if they are friends. Alex is so surprised she doesn't immediately push it away. "I know Cookie put you up to this," Lena says. "And I know there is a war going on inside of you, and that this was the last thing you wanted to do. You see, I know the secret you keep even from yourself. I can help you in ways you can't imagine. But we need to talk. In private."

Alex still will not move. She's shutting down.

Lena wipes away Alex's tears, ignoring the evil intent those tears betray. Alex feels shattered by anger, shame and confusion. She wants to scream at Lena to mind her own fucking business, but she doesn't. As much as she wants to prove her strength, she knows she is weak. As much as she wants people to think she's under control, she knows that she needs help.

Lena puts her hand against Alex's back and leads her away from the cliff. All four of them slowly backtrack down the hall and into the auditorium and then behind a curtain. There is no place more secluded in the school.

Alex looks at Lena curiously, thinking that Lena better say something, because Alex certainly won't.

"I know you are confused, and I don't have all of the answers for you," Lena says, then points towards the unfamiliar brunette. "But our friend Max does."

Max rolls her eyes. "I don't have ALL of the answers, but I've made enough mistakes that I know what won't work."

Alex shakes her head, confused and angry. "What the hell are you talking about."

"Well, let me show you want I mean," Max says. "Think of a number between one and a million."

"Oh, God!" Alex complains and rolls her eyes, but she pauses to think for a second.

"418,001," Max declares confidently.

"What the fuck!" Alex says, shocked.

"I could have told her that, Max," Lena complains. "Tell her something _nobody_ knows, yet."

Max thinks for a moment; then she says, "Follow me." She leads them across the auditorium to a door leading to the parking lot. She puts her hand on the doorknob, then stops. "In like ten seconds, an ambulance and a firetruck are going to drive by, forcing a bicyclist to leave the road."

Alex looks at Max like she is crazy, but Max opens the door, and they see an aging man peddling his bicycle casually by the parking lot. A few seconds later, two emergency vehicles hurry down the road behind the man, lights flashing. The ambulance emits two quick loud siren bursts, threatening like a dog barking, and the surprising sound startles the bicyclist so that he drives off the road. Just as Max had predicted.

Alex feels dizzy, losing her bearings. "What is going on?"

"Your sister is not the only girl in this school with powers," Lena tells Alex, exploding all of the Danvers' best-kept secrets, while introducing many more.

"I can tell you that all of us, including you and Kara, will be really good friends soon," Max predicts. "And there will be no secrets between us … except one."

"What's that?" Alex asks.

Max replies ominously, "You can never tell your sister how you really feel about her."

X X X

Soon after, the bell rings signaling the start of lunch, but the four teens sneak to the back of the auditorium to the equipment room, and they lock the door behind them. It's cramped with no place to sit, but now they can talk openly without always looking over their shoulders.

Lena amazes Alex with the story of how the three telepaths acquired their powers. With just a small demonstration, Alex believes their claims without reservation. She doesn't even entertain thoughts that their abilities might be a magician's trick. After living with a Kryptonian for a couple of years, Alex finds it easy to believe in magic. But when they "reveal" to Alex that she is in love with her sister, and that Kara is secretly in love with her, too, she finds _that_ hard to believe, even with all of the evidence in the world. Or at least she finds it hard to accept.

Lena reads her mind, of course, and decides to hammer the point home rather cruelly. "Let me test you on that. Imagine how Kara would feel if we left those lists taped to the walls. You know how hard she's been trying to fit in at school. She would have been devastated. She would feel worthless and even more ashamed than she feels now, having to hide her life and powers and feelings from everyone around her. She would even be thinking about ways to kill herself. Now, imagine how she would feel if she knew that the person who posted the lists was YOU, the only person she adores and believes in. If that doesn't tear you apart inside, then maybe..."

But even before Lena finishes posing her test, Alex breaks into tears, stumbled on her feet and raising her palm, begging for Lena to stop.

Lena's tone is firm, devoid of either judgement or sympathy: "What you were planning to do is just horrible. I won't sugarcoat that. But I've seen it many times. Gays attacking gays, just to prove they aren't gay. Parents abusing their children, because their pain is as great as their love. It's tragic, but it's everywhere, people hurting the people they love the most. It's one of the curses I bear to see the same cruelty in everyone, even when people don't see it in themselves."

Alex can't look Lena in the eye, as she chokes out, "I know I'm horrible, but I never wanted to hurt her."

"Fortunately, we didn't let you hurt Kara, so you never need to apologize," Lena insists. "But if you love her as much as I think you do, you WILL hurt her, in order to help her."

"What do you mean?" Alex asks while wiping away her tears.

"Kara is in danger," Max says, stepping in. "Your mom has been paranoid about some things, I guess, but not this. Kara actually does need to hide her identity from the world."

Alex sighed, "Well, I don't think you have much to worry about. Kara is so shy, nobody could ever guess that there is anything special about her, especially that she's from another planet."

"That's where you are wrong," Max says. "She might seem shy on Earth because she's insecure, but back on Krypton, she would have been a free spirit. Here on Earth, she feels trapped and controlled, especially by your mother, but she has so much power and potential, she can barely contain herself. If Kara has her way, she will break all kinds of rules."

Alex almost smiled, thinking of Kara that way. "That doesn't sound so bad."

"It wouldn't be," Max explained, "except that if she makes waves, she's as good as dead. When Kara came to Earth, a bunch of aliens came here at the same time, and some of these aliens are stronger than she is. They're mostly bad dudes. REALLY bad dudes. But they mixed in with the crowd so that nobody would bother them, not the cops, not the Super-guy or anyone. They've decided to quietly conquer their own little slice of the world and leave the rest of us in peace. The deal is that all of these aliens have a major grudge against Kara's real mom. Many of them have sworn revenge. If they ever find out about Kara, they will go after her. They don't want only to kill her; they want her to hurt her real bad."

"Oh, no!" Alex gasps, her imagination running wild. "We have to warn her."

"Nah, not again," Max continues with a groan. "We've already tried that like five times, and it always turns into a shitfest. Kara is a rebel. She's attracted to danger. Sure, she'll act meek at first if you warn her, trying to hold herself back because she knows she should, trying to be a good girl, but at some point she will walk right up to whoever is threatening her, or maybe she'll conveniently forget that perfume crap again. If you tell her to do anything for her own good, it works like reverse psychology; she feels compelled to do the opposite. I don't know if she can even help herself."

Alex laughs silently, barely able to recognize the daring girl Max describes. "So, what do we do?" Alex asks.

"It's gotta be about you and your mom, not about Kara," Max says hopefully. "Kara would risk her life just for kicks, but she won't ever risk you. You've gotta make her believe that if she screws up and exposes herself in any way, you will be the one in danger. She doesn't care about her own safety, but she'll do anything for someone she loves. It's really important that Kara keeps her secret. I know you've heard this before, but Kara really does need to keep her identity a secret."

Alex nods, suddenly feeling very protective of her sister. "So, we just tell her that all of our lives will be destroyed if she screws up?"

"You make it sound simple," Lena says, shaking her head, sensing that Alex doesn't quite get it. "It's not simple at all! Not only can't Kara use her powers, but she also can't draw any attention to herself at all. Some aliens are very actively looking for her. They know what Kara looked like on Krypton. They have her fingerprints, DNA and who knows what other ways to identify her. Kara needs to appear like the most ordinary girl on Earth. That means dressing like everyone else, trying out as a cheerleader, and liking the most popular music. It also means flirting with boys, not with her big sister."

Alex cringes at that suggestion. Ten minutes ago, she denied her feelings for Kara to herself and anyone who would ask, but now she feels offended that Lena would dare keep them apart. "What right do we have to tell Kara who to love?"

"None at all, and we won't!" Lena replies indignantly. That goes against everything Lena believes in.

Max explains, "If we told her to hide her love for you, she'd mope around at home for a while, then go to the rooftop and fucking yell out her feelings as loud as she could. I know it because we tried it. So, let's try something else. You need to convince her that you don't love her that way. You need to make her believe that even the idea turns you off. You know, just like you've been trying to tell her and yourself every day. I know it's been eating you up inside, hiding these feelings, but this time, you'll be lying out of love, not fear. It's going to be fucking hard, no doubt, but Kara's life depends on you pulling this off. Can you do that?"

Alex hesitates. "We can't tell her anything? Why can't I at least tell her how I feel about her?"

Max shakes her head. "It never works. If she knows how you feel, then you two will never be able to hide your feelings. Soon after that, everyone will know, and it will become a news story. Headline: sister in love with sister, and suddenly she'll be on the aliens' radars. Kara needs to be invisible, and she can't be if you tell her how you feel about her."

"Maybe you should have just let me put up those lists, then, so I wouldn't need to lie, and she'd hate me forever," Alex rebukes, filled with self-loathing.

Max shakes her head again. "She needs to love you. You are the only thing in her life that means anything to her, and if she lost that, I don't know what she'd do. I don't know what you'd do without her, either. I think you would both rather have each other as sisters than not at all, am I right? I know it's totally unfair to both of you, but if you can do that, I really think you can keep Kara safe for a long time."

"Ok," Alex says, then sighs. She doesn't know how to feel. Max has just told her that she needs to suck it up and keep on with the "we're just sisters" act, the same act that nearly led to an unthinkable tragedy with those lists. But now the charade doesn't feel as unbearable. These new friends know of the blackness in her heart, yet they forgave her; maybe she can forgive herself. And fighting her feelings doesn't seem as unbearable, now that she accepts that she has them. In fact, living this lie will be an act of love. Self-denial and guilt are so much easier to live with, knowing it will be for love.

At least Alex will have the choice; Kara will never know what she is giving up.

Alex looks at Max and says with both awe and sympathy, "I don't like this power you have; I don't want to know the future."

Max nods. "It's not easy. The cool thing is that I don't have to regret anything, anymore. But it sucks knowing that no matter what I do, people are going to get hurt. I don't know how to live with that, sometimes."

"What do I do about Cookie?" Alex asks. "If I don't put up those lists, she'll probably put them up herself and find a way to blame me."

Eric and Lena look at each other.

"Leave it to Eric," Lena says. "He'll adjust Cookie's attitude."

Eric groans. "Yeah, I'm not so sure about this. I think if I see her right now, I'll punch her in the face."

Max laughs. "You guys are going to be fucking head over heels in no time."

"If you say so," Eric concedes without much humor.

Alex had heard a lot of unbelievable things today, but believing that Cookie could seriously love anyone was probably the most unbelievable.

"I don't know what to say to Kara," Alex complains, worried that she'll screw this up. "She's probably in the cafeteria right now, alone with a pile of food and feeling miserable."

"Well, let's join her, then," Lena says cheerfully, then she sees Alex's skeptical expression. "What? Did you think you'd have to do this alone?"

"Well…" Alex begins, feeling relief.

"Yeah, fuck this depressing shit!" Max enjoins excitedly, going from wise beyond her years to totally rad in five seconds. She raises two fists in the air, pinkies and thumbs flaring. "Let's get this party started, shaka brah! Nosh with the space girl!" Max adds.

"Sure, OK - I think," Alex says, laughing.

They walk through the empty halls towards where the whole school is feasting.

When they push through the double doors, Max pauses and looks the students over.

"Is there a problem?" Lena asks.

"Nah," Max says, then continues walking. "I just wish I had my camera with me."

Kara is sitting alone behind a pillar, about as hidden as a girl could be in the wide-open area. Her table is about half the size of any other in the cafeteria, almost ensuring that she would be eating alone.

Alex grabs a chair from a nearby table, and, in one quick move, she is sitting opposite her sister and stealing one of Kara's French fries.

Kara's watches her wide-eyed, while she chews on a mouth full of pasta.

Lena and Eric grab an empty table a few feet away and pull it up against Kara's small table, and before Kara can swallow her food, all five of them are sitting together like the best of friends.

After swallowing her food, Kara looks shyly at her food and asks, "You don't have to sit here. I'm doing OK. I don't mind if you hang with your friends."

Alex lifts Kara's chin, so the lonely girl's eyes rise to meet her own.

"These guys are my friends, now," Alex says, gesturing towards the three telepaths. "And they are your friends, too."

"I don't know," Kara says, squirming, trying to hide her face. "Why would they want to be my friends?"

Alex's heart is breaking, thinking about what she had almost done to her precious sister.

Lena walks behind Eric, rubbing his back and shoulders, but looking at Kara gently. "Come on, little angel! Be our friend! There is nothing wrong with you. In fact, we think you're pretty super."

Kara looks at Lena wide-eyed.

Max looks at them all thoughtfully, then she smiles brightly and says mysteriously, "Yeah, this is the moment we need. I think we'll all be OK, now."


End file.
